Ganilau family’s “kana loto” – free loan – from collapsed NBF

Ganilau

Penaia Ganilau and his Korean businessmen partners obtained over $4.5million ‘chicken and egg loan’ on ‘Barge under Construction’

Part Twenty of a Special Report by VICTOR LAL

Qeleni Holdings Limited! Cakaudrove Provincial Council! Iko Vuka Enterprises! Yatu Lau Company Limited. And now, it is Tavenui Woo IL Pacific Company Ltd.  

The Ganilau family’s “kana loto” – free meal – loans from the collapsed National Bank of Fiji knew no bounds or restraints.

Further investigation into Tavenui Woo IL has revealed that one of the faceless directors behind the company was none other than Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, the President of Rabuka’s post-coup Fiji who, while scheming and plotting against Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the declaration of Fiji into a republic, was simultaneously cutting deals with Korean businessmen to form the above business venture. 

 
When the NBF collapsed because of the defaulting bad debtors, Tavenui Woo IL was listed as owing the bank a staggering $5,425,000 (Five Million and Four Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Dollars), raising the question: why were $320millions of dollars worth of bad loans written off, and as former DPP chief and later High Court judge, Justice Nazhat Shameem, had complained “no one was brought to justice”. Was it because it involved the high and mighty in society, including President Ganilau and his Prime Minister Mara, and their siblings? 
 
We may recall from my earlier investigations that Penaia Ganilau had claimed that recently disenfranchised Indo-Fijians could engage, if they so chose, in business ventures, but political power must reside in i-taukei hands. 

Remember the racist 1990 Constitution which Ganilau-Mara had shoved down the throats of non-Fijians, which had disenfranchised half of the country’s population including urban i-taukei Fijians. 

The apartheid-style regime, backed by Rabuka’s guns, also provided the Ganilau-Mara dynasty the opportunity to form various business ventures on the back of loans obtained from the NBF. 

After all, Ganilau was Rabuka’s paramount chief, and controlled the Cakaudrove Provincial Council through his side-kick, coup conspirator and leader of the dreaded Taukei Movement, Inoke Kubuabola, another debtor to the collapsed NBF.
 
In the case of Tavenui Woo IL, additional loan was obtained even on a barge that was under construction – ‘chicken and egg loan’ – raising the question: how on earth did the NBF come to the decision that the barge would protect its customers in the event of the company defaulting on its loan? 

Just imagine a businessman walking into a bank and walking out with a million dollars in loan on the basis of a lottery ticket that he had just bought which guaranteed a million dollars in prize money.
 
But we must not draw a deep gasp. In the post Rabuka coup Fiji, the Mara-Ganilaus were the Kings of Coupcoupland, and they were the LAW. Now their siblings have re-emerged in post 2006 Coupcoupland. 

While Ganilau-Mara duo were conveniently accusing Indo-Fijians for lack of i-taukei participation in business, they themselves were forming business partnerships with foreign businessmen - remember Mara’s Lomaloma Resort (owed thousands in debt to NBF) and his partnership with the Japanese businessman Tsuito Yokota from Osaka, Japan? Not to mention Korean businessmen in the collapsed Vanua Air Fiji Ltd on which I will be writing later on in the series).
 
Tavenui Woo IL Pacific Company Ltd
According to the Articles of Association, the above company was formed on 15 September 1989, two years into Rabuka’s 1987 coups. 

It was registered as a limited liability company with its registered office at Lovonivonu, Tavenui, in the ‘Republic of Fiji’. 

The 1992 Annual Return to the Registrar of Companies (ROC) listed the following as directors: Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, c/- Government House, Suva, President of Fiji; Ratu Isikeli Turaganivalu Kubuabola, Somosomo, Tavenui, Roko Tui Somosomo; Hang Ho Lie and Hung Chull Kim, Koreans. 

They gave the same address in Korea: 837-12 Yeuksan-Dong Seoul, 135-080, Korea; and Adi Mei Gauna, Alternate to Penaia Ganilau. Isikeli Kubuabola, who passed away about two years ago, was listed as secretary to the Company.
 
It is worth reminding those, both inside and outside Fiji, who are zealously and blindly supporting the dictator, Frank Bainimarama’s ‘Look China Policy’, to wake up and take note. Shortly after the 1987 coups, Rabuka’s illegal Prime Minister Mara, in response to Australia and New Zealand’s opposition to the coups, had embarked on the so-called ‘Look South East Asia Policy’ with Mara and his team making visits to South Korea.
 
Now, as we have seen from documents in the companies they were involved in, how they were lining up their own, their families and their business partners pockets under the sulu of the 1987 nationalist and racist coups, resulting in the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji. 
 
The day Fiji returns to democracy and once again we have a free media (whether Fiji Times is closed down and the coup propagandist Fiji Sun survives), we will, I am convinced, be able to find out what the present illegal lot got out of ‘Look China Policy’, if any, with all those Chinese companies promising to come and invest in post 2006 coup. 

In other words, who will be (or are) these Chinese businessmen’s local Fiji partners, for remember the regime wants the Fiji Times to be 90 per cent locally owned. In the absence of a functioning Parliament, and a repressed media, the present illegal lot has granted themselves license to sell Fiji’s “silvers” to the so-called enthusiastic Chinese investors.
 
According to Tavenui Woo IL’s Debenture dated 21 September 1989, $800,000 was secured in mortgage, being further advance, making a total of $4,600,000 (Four Million and Six Hundred Thousand Dollars). Particulars of the Property Mortgaged: “The Company’s real and personal property and all its assets and effects whatever and whenever both present and future including its uncalled and unpaid capital.” 
 
Allotments from the 30 December 1991 Annual Return to the ROC
Number of Ordinary Shares allotted payable in cash $400,000. Nominal Amount of 400,000 shares so allotted. Amount paid in due and payable on each share - $1; Amount paid or due on each share: 150,000. Number of 400,000 shares so allotted.
 
Name, Address, and Description of Allotees
Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau c/-Govt House, Suva, 200,000 shares; Woo IL Pacific Ltd, Seoul, Korea, 400,000 shares; and Cakaudrove Provincial Council, Waiyevo, Tavenui, 200,000 shares.
 
Particulars of Indebtedness
The Annual Return of the Company to the ROC for December 1992 revealed the following: “Total amount of indebtedness of the Company in respect of all mortgages and charges which were required to be registered with the ROC under the Companies Act: $4,076,783.”
 
On 30 December 1991, at an extraordinary general meeting of the Company, it was resolved as follows: “That the share capital of the Company be increased to the amount Two Million Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500,000) by the creation of additional share capital to the amount of One Million Five Hundred Thousand ($1,500,000).” 

And that, “Paragraph 5 of the Memorandum of Association be amended to read as follows: ‘The share capital of the Company shall be $2,500,000 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand) shares of $1 (One Dollar) each’”. Penaia Ganilau, as director of the Company, signed off the declaration.
 
On 26 May 1993, the ROC certified the following, stating “Collateral Debenture, securing the sum of $2,300,000 and further advances dated the 21st day of September 1989, given by Tavenui Woo IL Pacific Company Ltd, has this day been registered in accordance with the provisions of Part IV of the Companies Act and has been varied to secure the sum of $4,600,000 and further advances”.
 
On the same day, the Particulars of Mortgage by Tavenui Woo IL to NBF, a body corporate duly constituted under the National Bank of Fiji Act 1973 and having its principal office in Suva, reveals the following: “Bill of Sale dated 19 April 1993, Collateral to Mortgage dated 21 September 1989; Amount secured by Mortgage: $4,600,000; Short Particular of the Property Mortgaged: Grantor’s Barge approximately 27 metres in length and presently under construction, together with all accessories, equipment and fittings thereto.”
 
When the NBF went under water because of the bad debtors, Tavenui Woo IL Pacific Company was listed as owing a staggering $5,425,000 to the collapsed bank. 

To recall Shameem’s chilling reminder, what was supposed to be an affirmative action programme to advance soft loans by the NBF to the disadvantaged indigenous population was in fact a slush fund for the privileged – in the case of Tavenui Woo – none other than Rabuka’s high chief and President of Fiji – Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau. 
 
But Ganilau was pipped to the post by his own private executive secretary and radio announcer, Masimeke Latianara, and his business partner George Kwong, married to Ratu Mara’s first cousin Seni Rosa, when their company Tropikana Ltd was listed as owing over $7million to the collapsed NBF. 

George Kwong was listed as personally owing over $7,000 to the bank. In 1996 Tropikana went into liquidation, and the National Bank of Fiji collapsed with a bad debt of over $372million.

To be continued

Editor’s Note: We will continue to reveal debtors names, which includes those of high chiefs, politicians, Indo-Fijians, business houses, including individual supporters of the present illegal junta in Fiji. If you or your family has paid back the NBF loans, please provide Victor Lal with evidence. He can be reached at vloxford@gmail.com  

Pictures: Top Penaia Ganilua, Middle: betrayed monarchy Queen Elizabeth and Bottom: Rabuka.