Vohor accused of passport scam

Special Report

By Patrick Decloitre

DAYS before Vanuatu’s March 6 general elec tion, the country’s hard

hitting ombudsman

accused Prime Minister Serge Vohor of taking US$6O,OOO in an alleged passport scam.

French-bom Marie-Noelle Patterson, has released a series of damning reports that have shaken the Vohor Government.

A report released in December, alleg ing politicians had misused Vanuatu’s National Provident Fund (VNPF) to grant themselves loans and buy private houses, triggered discontent among Vanuatu work ers.

A riot ensued on January 12, followed the day after by a state of emergency. But last December again, a report on the alleged illegal sale of Vanuatu passports turned out to be only the first of a series.

The report was actually requested by Prime Minister Vohor and his former Foreign minister, Willie Jimmy.

The two, in a heated exchange last September, accused each other of master minding the scheme which began to sur face at the time.

In her first report on the issue last December, Patterson alleged a 33-year-old South Korean, Jae Yong (Richard) Jung, was promoting the concept of an “immi gration scheme”. It purported to arrange, through a “Resort Las Vegas” company, for the immigration into Vanuatu of up to 80,000 Asians at a pace of 4,000 per year.

The report says Jung would have promised the Vanuatu government earn ings of 40 billion vatu (US$33O million) from the sale of passports and citizenship packages (about 1.8 million vatu apiece, of which 700,000 vatu would go to the

Vanuatu government).

Jung also promised to build a US$lOO million, 350-room hotel resort and a casino “that can compete with those in Australia and New Zealand” in Toukoutouk (15 kilo metres west of Port Vila).

Jung was appointed a Vanuatu trade commissioner to Korea and given an offi cial Vanuatu passport, although this posi tion doesn’t give access to such a docu ment.

In the first passport report, Patterson unveils an alleged scam purporting to sell Vanuatu diplomatic, official and ordinary passports to Asians from China, Korea,

Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia,

Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong.

“The bottom line is that Mr Vohor knew full well that foreign nationals do not qual ify to apply for Vanuatu citizenship until they have continuously resided in Vanuatu for 10 years”, Patterson wrote.

Patterson said Jung was convicted in 1992 in South Korea afid served three years jail for stealing military equipment.

He is currently believed to be wanted there for forging securities.

Late in January, another report described how Vohor, independence father Walter Lini (in charge of Justice), four other ministers and 13 MPs reproduced and signed virtually the same letter and sent copies to the Korean President, asking him to pardon Jung for the sake of “build ing up national projects”.

“Mr Jung truly loves Korea and Vanuatu more than anyone else”, the let ters all said.

Early in February, another report on the same issue, but with different foreign pro tagonists, came out: this time, Patterson directly accused Vohor of “criminal con spiracy” in an alleged passports sale scam.

In her third report on the passports issue, Patterson also accused other top leaders, including Vohor’s former foreign minister Willie Jimmy and Principal Immigration officer Jean-Marc Bell of cor ruption, accusing them of conspiring to illegally issue Vanuatu passports to Asians.

She said Vohor, in exchange for the swift issuing of passports, would have received some US$6O,OOO, whereas Jimmy and other officials would have received free plane tickets to Australia and other

gifts.

She names a Jian Peng Chen, a Chinese citizen, as being appointed in January last year by Vohor as Vanuatu’s honorary con sul to Macau, where there is no recorded Vanuatu citizen.

Chen had met Vohor one week earlier and made two payments of US$lOO,OOO and 500,000 Hong Kong dollars “for the

good and wellbeing of the people of Vanuatu”, Patterson writes.

But Foreign Affairs told her they never saw the money.

In June last year, the report goes on, Chen came back to Vanuatu with another Chinese, Larry Yu, who was promptly appointed Vanuatu Trade Commissioner in Cambodia, a country Vanuatu has no trade links with.

She says Cambodian authorities never

approved the appointment.

Chen later obtained another ten Vanuatu passports for family and friends, all Chinese.

Vohor strongly denied any involvement in the scheme saying Patterson’s report may be “a very good story”, but that it was “imaginary” ... “insulting” ... “false” ...

“unfounded” and ... “a slap in the face”.

The Vanuatu Prime Minister threatened to take legal action against the ombudsman for her accusations, saying she was “play ing politics” less than one month ahead of general elections.

“I only made a recommendation to the President and the citizenship commission, this is not my area, I don’t control this”, he said last December.

Vohor said the money was collected for his Union of Moderate Parties’ congress

transportation expenses.

Jimmy said he acted on Vohor’s orders to issue official and diplomatic Vanuatu passports to Chen and Yu. He also noted Patterson’s attacks coincided with a sensi tive pre-electoral time. And he should know; two years ago, also ahead of the December 1995 general elections, he was one of the ombudsman’s first high-seated victims, when a report on Jimmy’s liquor shop “Nambawan Bottle Shop” was target ed. Patterson replied to Vohor and Jimmy’s rejections, saying all her reports were doc umented and backed by evidence.

“There is no imagination in there”, she told national radio.

“To date, no one has ever challenged the contents of my reports in court”.

She noted the constitution empowered her to “enquire into the conduct of any per son or body”, either after receiving a pri vate complaint, or at the request of the council of ministers, or of her own initia tive.

Patterson recommended Vohor and Jimmy resign and never hold public office

again. ■