Results for bribery

The election of Deputy Prime Minister, Hon. Poasi Tei, as Tongatapu No. 6 People’s Representative to the Legislative Assembly has been declared void by the Supreme Court, after he was found to have committed three acts of bribery, in the lead up to the November 2021 General Election. He is the fourth Member of Parliament and third Cabinet Minister whose election has been voided.

The election of Tatafu Moeaki as the Tongatapu No. 4 People’s Representative to the Legislative Assembly was declared void by a Supreme Court judge today, who found that he committed bribery on two occasions, in the lead-up to the November 2021 General Election. Moeaki, the current Minister of Finance, is the second Cabinet Minister the court has found to have committed the offence of bribery under the Electoral Act.

Pita Vakalahi (28) will be sentenced on 1 June, after he was found guilty of demanding a bribe of $640 pa'anga from a driver in a traffic offence case he worked on in 2019.

Fili Ta'ai (56) of Ngele’ia has pleaded guilty to bribery of a member of Tonga Police, when he appeared at the Supreme Court on May 14.

Fanguna Alalea (33) was sentenced to three-years imprisonment for offering a bribe to another police officer to take drugs from the Police exhibit room last July. This was in regards to a case concerning Sione Filipe Jr. “A police officer seeking to corrupt another police officer, is in my view, one of the most disgraceful acts imaginable,” said the Chief Justice.

A police officer charged in relation to a bribery charge allegedly involving the Sione Filipe Jr. case was released on bail today, July 29.

A police officer has been charged with accepting bribery in relation to the Sione Filipe Jr. illicit drugs case. Their cases are adjourned to July 29, at the Fasi Magistrate's Court.

Paula Halapua and Siosaia Finau have pleaded not guilty to extortion as a joint enterprise after allegedly taking $40 pa'anga from a complainant who was taken to a police station for breath testing in 2013.

Nausaimone Kitekei’aho, a man in his 50s, who was convicted of possession of 3,800 grams illicit drug cannabis and bribery of a Tongan Police officer, will be sentenced on 31 August at the Nuku'alofa Supreme Court. This was a case where the marijuana and photographs of it were lost by police - but neither the defence nor prosecution made much of it.