24 Jun 2008

Cash goes missing between Australia and PNG bank

3:30 pm on 24 June 2008

Police in Australia and Papua New Guinea will investigate the disappearance of about 200,000 US dollars in cash while it was being flown from Sydney to Port Moresby.

PNG's Post-Courier newspaper says the Australian and US currency was reported missing on June the 13th after vanishing en route from Sydney to a Port Moresby bank, via Brisbane.

The cash was being flown to PNG aboard an Air Niugini flight, through cargo processes operated by Qantas.

An Australian security company had ordered a PNG security company to pick up the cash from Port Moresby airport on June the 7th, but Air Niugini claims the cargo never made it to PNG.

Air Niugini, Qantas, three security companies and two freight companies are now looking at their records and interviewing staff to try to determine what happened to the cash.

Once these inquiries are complete, PNG and Australian police are expected to launch their own investigations.