Hits back at A-G Activities could be used for laundering
“Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is the last person to lecture us about laws, transparency and accountability,” the NFP leader said.
He said the claims made by the A-G in his capacity as general secretary of the FijiFirst party of which he was also the registered officer was “baseless, childish and frivolous”.
“Mr Sayed-Khaiyum has not provided a single shred of evidence to back his lunatic claim that fundraising dinners can be used by businessmen to launder funds.
“If anything, the donor lists of FijiFirst make a great study case for forensic audit to determine the authenticity of the source of funds in strict compliance to the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Act.”
Prof Biman said the A-G must explain how a businessman, linked to a well-known pharmacy chain and his family, donated $50,000 on October 15, 2018.
“And a little over two weeks later on November 1, 2018, another $50,000 was listed under the names of five pharmacists operating under the same chain.
“Unlike Fiji’s defacto prime minister, we are basing our claim upon scrutiny of FijiFirst’s donor list for 2018.”
Meanwhile, during a press conference on Wednesday evening, the A-G said many of FijiFirst’s donors “were chastised by many political parties following the elections in 2018”. “They publish the names, chastise them but all of these donations were upfront,” Mr SayedKhaiyum said.
FIJIFIRST party general secretary Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum claimed recent fundraising events by The People’s Alliance party and the National Federation Party overseas, among other things, could be used to “launder money”.
He said this in a letter sent to Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem on Wednesday.
“We note that in such fundraising activities, there is the opportunity to manipulate the source of political donations, obtain money from business entities, and even launder money,” said Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
“It is therefore critical that the Fijian Elections Office require records of all donors, in particular from such fundraising activities, and further require political parties who conduct such fundraising activities to provide the money trail.
“All laws in relation to political party donations must be adhered to.
“In order to achieve a free and fair election, and ultimately protect its integrity, it is imperative that all political parties are compliant with the laws and maintain transparency in respect of political donations.”