Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva has claimed Princess Pilolevu Tuita’s satellite company is inactive and financially weak.
Hon. Pōhiva was responding to a number of accusations raised against him in a petition recently submitted to the king.
The petition’s organisers, former cabinet ministers and MPs Sione Teisina Fuko and lawyer Williams Clive Edwards, have accused Hon. Pōhiva of unlawfully using government funds to pay his own legal costs and those of the Public Service Association in the court case against Tongasat.
The case involved the illegal transfer of a TP$90 million Chinese grant to Tongasat.
The Prime Minister has denied the accusation and said the decision was made by the Acting Attorney General ‘Aminiasi Kefu after a number of considerations and communications among plaintiffs’ and defendants’ legal counsellors.
The Prime Minister claimed that after a decision by Lord Chief Justice Owen Paulsen on August 17, 2018 declaring that the transfer of the money was illegal, Paulsen also ruled that Tongasat and the government must pay the plaintiffs’ legal costs.
Hon. Pōhiva said in a statement to Kaniva news and other news media that the Acting Attorney General made his decision based on the fact that the illegality of the transfer of the money was caused by the government and not Tongasat even though Tongasat was directly involved with the deal.
Hon. Pōhiva also claimed Tongasat was financially weak and could not pay the whole or part of the plaintiff’s legal costs.
“Today the company’s status is just a ‘shell company’,” the Prime Minister said.
The Prime Minister also said there was little hope that Tongasat’s appeal against the Supreme Court decision would succeed.
Tongasat
Tonga’s venture into satellite communications began in 1987 when the American satellite business operator, Matt C. Nilson, persuaded the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV to sponsor a satellite system over the Pacific.
The king agreed and gave right to the operation of Tonga’s satellite slots to his only daughter Princess Pilolevu.
The company, which was named Tongasat or Friendly Islands Satellite Communications Ltd, was 60 percent owned by Princess Pilolevu and intended to control equatorial satellite slots and a single satellite.
Mr. Nilson was Tongsat’s managing director and had a 20 percent stake in the venture.
In the 1980s, when he was leader of the opposition, Hon. Pōhiva revealed the deal in his newspaper, Kele’a.
Hon. Pōhiva accused the king of breaching the constitution by giving Princess Pilolevu the rights to the business as he believed the space in which the satellites were slotted belonged to the government and the nation as a whole.
“Tongan officials concede that they can put up none of the money for the satellites they are proposing, and that Tongasat has only six employees. But the princess who is Tongasat’s chairperson seemed offended by accusations that the satellite positions are being hoarded to make a quick profit,” the New York Times said.
”Countries in Asia and the Pacific region have a need for better communications,” the New York Times reported princess Pilolevu as saying.
”They make it sound as if we are only interested in financial gain.”
The Princess’s fortune
The Princess’s involvement with Tongasat attracted worldwide media coverage.
She was often referred to by New Zealand media as a Princess who was turned into a millionaire by the satellite company.
US-based Fortune magazine estimated the princess’s earnings from Tongasat at US$25 million (NZ$38 million).
Princess Pilolevu has always claimed her involvement in Tongasat was party of God’s plan for Tonga to lead the way in Christianising China. It was why Tonga switched its diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing and moved Tongasat to Hong Kong.
“I believe that God invented us to do this work otherwise we could have become just another foreigner knocking on doors in Beijing for years without having a chance to meet the leaders of China,” she said.
Significant risk
As Kaniva Tonga news reported earlier this month, Tongasat has appealed against a ruling that before any appeal against the judgement that the transfer of money was illegal, it must pay a security deposit to cover court costs.
In handing down the ruling, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen said it appeared an unnamed party was standing behind Tongasat and funding its appeal.
The judge said this was one of the factors he considered when ordering Tongasat to pay a TP$15,000 security deposit into the court before its latest appeal could be dealt with.
He said there was a significant risk that if costs were awarded against Tongasat they would not be paid.
Judge Paulsen said Tongasat’s financial condition appeared to be “parlous.”
The main points
- Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pōhiva has claimed Princess Pilolevu Tuita’s satellite company is inactive and financially weak.
- Hon. Pohiva was responding to a number of accusations raised against him in a petition recently submitted to the king.
For more information
“Unnamed party” funding Tongasat unlikely to pay costs if it loses appeal, Lord Chief Justice says; orders security deposit
