Prem Singh Caught out
Court battle reveals that National Federation Party provisional candidate falsified the value of his late father’s estate Matter referred to FICAC by Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem to investigate breach of Political Parties Act
Acourt battle to determine if Prem Singh did justice to his brother, Rajend Singh, when distributing their late father’s estate has revealed something far more sinister.
The Fiji Court of Appeal refused to strike out comments made by the High Court that Prem Singh, a National Federation Party provisional candidate, falsified the value of the estate of his late father.
Mr Singh, in the declaration filed under the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding and Disclosures) Act 2013, had understated the value of the company holding the estate. He declared it to be valued at $500,000 when it was proved in court later that the estate valued more than $2.226 million.
The court also upheld that Prem Singh had taken money out of Fiji – amounting up to AUS$50,000 without proper authorisation. And, that is not all.
This case has highlighted other fraudulent dealings done by the Opposition MP. Court of Appeal judges, Justice Surash Chandra, Justice E. Basnayake and Justice Almeida Guneratne agreed that Mr Singh did not have the authority to seek an extension on the lease of his late father’s estate through forming a company – Prajay Investments Limited.
“On 28 March 2006, the 2nd appellant (Prem Singh) has written the following letter seeking the land for the 3rd appellant (Prajay Investments Limited), which is as follows: Estate of late Pritam Nand has three beneficiaries and according to his last will, the beneficiaries have formed a limited liability company, Prajay Investments Limited, for the purpose of carrying out the subdivision. All the beneficiaries under the will of the deceased are the directors of the company and the reasons for the development lease to be in the company name is solely to raise the necessary funds to develop the land as otherwise the estate will be restricted to borrowing up to $10,000.” “The company was formed by the 2nd appellant (Prem Singh) with his wife. The respondent (Rajend Singh – Prem Singh’s brother) did not play any role in the formation of the company. The respondent (Rajend Singh) was not a director in the company either. This letter was found to mislead the Lands Department to defraud the beneficiary.”
FICAC:
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem yesterday confirmed he had referred the matter of breach of the Political Parties Act to the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate the matter further.