Katia pleads guilty to 11 counts of corruption related charges

Former Official Deputy Receiver Viliame Katia today pleaded guilty to 11 counts of corruption related charges in the Suva Magistrates Court.

He has been charged by FICAC with three counts of abuse of office for gain, four counts of forgery, one count of embezzlement, one count of giving false information to public servant, one count of unauthorized modification of data and a count of obtaining financial advantage involving millions of dollars.

Katia has also elected for his case to be heard in the Magistrates Court while FICAC’s counsel informed the Court that they would like to have the matter transferred to High Court.

The matter has been adjourned to next Friday for FICAC to file an application for the case to be transferred to High Court for sentencing.

It is alleged that between 1st July 2008 and 31st January 2010 while employed as the Acting Deputy Official Receiver he did an arbitrary act for the purpose of gain, causing payments amounting to $330,201 to be processed by the Accounts Section of the Office of the Official Receiver and which sum was drawn from the Official Receiver’s Bankrupt Account, which was an act prejudicial to the rights of the creditors from whom the Official Receiver held the sum in trust and to the Government of Fiji.

It is also alleged that between 1st July 2008 and 31st January 2010, with the intent to defraud, he made false documents namely emails from one Laise Dawai, employed with the Office of the Official Receiver in Lautoka in order to state that purported creditors were willing to accept reduced payments from their bankrupt debtors in order to facilitate the unlawful payment of monies from the Official Receiver’s Bankruptcy Account to himself.

Katia in the same period of time is alleged to have embezzled monies in the sum of $339,201 from the Official Receiver’s Bankruptcy Account.

It is alleged that Katia, between February 1st  2010 and 31st July 2014 being employed as the Acting Deputy Official Receiver did an arbitrary act for the purpose of gain, namely causing payments amounting to about $2.5 million to be processed by the Accounts Section of the Office of the Official Receiver.

He is also alleged to have done an arbitrary act for the purpose of gain causing payments amounting to $1.3 million between 1st July 2014 and 31st December 2015 which was processed by the Accounts Section of the Office of the Official Receiver.

It is also alleged that between 1st February 2010 and 31st December 2015 Katia made false documents that were purported to have been sent to him by one Sanaila Nukutau maki in order to dishonestly induce public officials employed within the office to accept them as genuine in order to dishonestly obtain gains from the Official Receiver’s Bankruptcy and Liquidation Accounts for himself.

According to the charges laid by FICAC, Katia allegedly made a false court order on winding up dated 28th May 1992 purported to have been made by the High Court of Fiji at Lautoka and Proof of Debt General Forms with intention of dishonestly inducing public officials employed within the office of the Official Receiver in Suva to accept them as genuine in order to dishonestly influence the exercise of the public duties and functions of the public officials.

The total amount involved is about $4 million.