The Chairman of the Solomon Islands company Russell Islands Plantation Estate Limited says he has presented proof to the Central Bank that he brought offshore money to the country to invest in RIPEL.
The government says it has given the bank 24 million Solomon Islands dollars or three million US dollars for the purchase of RIPEL's assets but says the company will not receive any money until its chairman can prove he invested in it with an offshore loan.
The Chairman of RIPEL, Patrick Wong, says during a meeting last year he presented the government with a list of money sent into the country from overseas and that was passed onto the Central Bank.
"The Central Bank admitted that all those monies put down on that list was received in the country. But they said it did not come from the mortgagees but came from associated companies and accordingly they don't consider that. The big question here is by law they cannot dictate how an accounting is to be done. It could be paid by some various financial institutes of ours but may not necessarily come direct from the mortgagees' actual bank account."
The Chairman of RIPEL, Patrick Wong.
