A high-profile Australian lawyer has been arrested in Papua New Guinea in relation to alleged theft of landowner development funds.
Greg Sheppard (centre) working as a lawyer in Port Moresby, representing PNG opposition leader Belden Namah Photo: Loop PNG
Greg Sheppard of Young & Williams Lawyers was arrested yesterday in Port Moresby, interviewed and taken into custody, charged with two counts of conspiracy and another two count of false pretense.
PNG's police commissioner David Manning said the charges relate to alleged misappropriation of around $US74.5 million from a landowner development fund in Western Province.
The Western Province People's Dividends Community Mine Continuation Agreement Trust Funds are based on dividends from landowners' 10 percent equity in the Ok Tedi hold and copper mine.
A statement from Manning linked the misappropriation to transactions paid into the Young & Williams Lawyers' account and that of Ok Tedi Fly River Development Foundation Limited
In the past week police arrested a Western Province woman in relation to the misappropriation case.
Sheppard has done extensive work in PNG over recent years, representing the former Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Opposition Leader Belden Namah among other prominent leaders.
Meanwhile, Manning said the work of forensic accounting specialists and detectives in the PNG Constabulary is working effectively in identifying and deterring fraud of such significant magnitude.
