26 Nov 2012

Australian charged with fraud by PNG's anti corruption taskforce

11:31 am on 26 November 2012

An Australian man has been arrested and charged with fraud by Papua New Guinea's anti corruption taskforce.

Leonard Patrick Capon, 68, was arrested and charged after allegedly misappropriating nearly 700-thousand US dollars paid in 2010 to his company, Rural Development Services Ltd, for a mini-hydro power project in Hela province in PNG's Highlands.

Authorities allege that project was never delivered and the funds were allegedly diverted to expenses unrelated to the purposes of the payment.

Task Force Sweep Chairman Sam Koim told PNG's The National newspaper that Mr Capon was arrested and charged with misappropriation.

He has been released on bail.

Task Force Sweep recently revealed it had registered 174 complaints about corruption, with just some of the cases involving amounts over 1 billion US dollars.

Of the 174 complaints, 52 cases have been investigated.