Affidavits and police investigative reports in court documents filed this week allege that government workers in both ministries have stolen tens of thousands of dollars in United States federal grant funding to the Marshall Islands government by approving fake invoices, purchase requisitions and purchase orders that resulted in numerous government checks being issued and enjoyed by a criminal ring involving government and private sector individuals.
A police investigation at the Ministry of Finance has turned up evidence suggesting the fraud and theft dates to 2006 and could top $1 million in losses to the government, the government’s Chief Prosecutor Tubosoye Brown said Wednesday.
While investigators say — and one government worker involved in the theft ring confirms — that some evidence of the alleged crimes has been destroyed by government workers, the investigation has been aided by a confession issued by Candi Leon, the first person charged in the ongoing investigation who has agreed to testify for the government in exchange for consideration when it comes time for sentencing.
The government’s Public Service Commission has responded to the expanding fraud investigation by suspending without pay five government employees pending the outcome of probe and criminal prosecutions.
Three Ministry of Finance staff and two Ministry of Health workers have been placed on suspension without pay until further notice, a commission official confirmed Wednesday.
Possible suspension of two more workers from Health and Finance was under review by the Commission Wednesday, with a decision likely before week’s end, the official said.
The AGO submitted a list of government workers implicated in the theft of government money that it requested be suspended.
PSC officials said they temporarily suspended five, and requested additional information on two others included on the list.
Leon, who works for a business on Majuro, and Ministry of Finance official Nella Nashion, have both been charged with a series of theft-related criminal counts.
Leon has implicated three current and former Ministry of Health workers and three Ministry of Finance workers, including Nashion, who is facing 12 counts alleging her involvement in approving documents for a $14,820 check that was issued to Jiang Hu Repair Shop for allegedly phony purchases, and altering a purchase requisition from $3,000 to $19,000 to Home Special Supply in another allegedly fake purchase.
“I expect we will file two or three more criminal cases next week,” said Brown. He also said the ongoing investigation by the National Police Criminal Investigation Division is not limited to the Finance and Health ministries.
Included with the charges against Nashion is an affidavit from Allister Mantiera, an official in Finance’s accounts payable office. In a handwritten statement, Mantiera states that he received a call from Leon in April to pull out from the file all documents related to payments made to Home Special Supply and destroy them, which he says he did. The amount involved in the five checks was $80,350, according to this statement.
Mantiera said that for his involvement in processing the first check of $15,661, Leon gave him $100. For the later four checks, he said he received $4,000.
Police Detective Parker Wilson stated in his affidavit attached to the Nashion prosecution that Nashion, the Ministry of Finance’s international aid officer, “was one of those who masterminded the deal in 2009 by preparing a fake purchase requisition document, which she later destroyed, and facilitating the preparation of all relevant documents, including the purchase order, which led to $14,820 being paid out of U.S. federal grants.”
