31-year-old Misaele Matawalu who was charged by the Criminal Investigation Department’s Economic Crimes Unit with nine counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception for allegedly creating fake loan accounts while employed as a lending officer has been granted bail.
Matawalu appeared in the Nausori Magistrates Court.
He was released on a bail bond of $500 with strict conditions and a stop departure order was also issued for the 31-year-old.
Police say Matawalu is alleged to have created loan accounts for three of his family members without their knowledge, and conducted nine transactions into their accounts of over $29,000 which was applied through a loan without proper documentation between November 2021 to May 2022.
They also say the transactions were discovered when the bank noticed arrears in payments on the 3 accounts and conducted an internal investigation, where it was discovered that the accused had created the accounts and approved the loans.
The case will be called again on the 16th of next month.
