Police eyeing 2nd person regarding missing One-Link $300k exhibit money

Police have revealed for the first time that there is a second person that they are looking to interview regarding the missing $300k One-Link Pacifica exhibit money that went missing in their Exhibit Room at Rove in April last year. That person was one of the only two custodians of the keys to the storage room where the $300k was kept. The other officer had already been questioned and is suspended on half-pay.

With public demanding urgent answers from the RSIPF and a clear explanation on the delay, SBMOnline used Thursday’s Commissioner of Police’s Press Conference to dig into the issue and asked, what is holding up the investigation?

Sitting in for the Commissioner of Police was the Deputy Commissioner National Security and Operation Support, Ian Vaevaso who admitted that there are challenges with the case.

When probed to explain what are the challenges he replied: “What we have seen is the exhibit is a place that no one goes into. You could see that there are no people to witness what has happened.  The only thing that the police was aware was the money was missing. Those are the areas we are looking into – to try and come up with evidence to proof that the officer had actually took the money.”

“At this stage we didn’t know who remove the money. What we are looking into now is how did the money was missing?” he added.

So when pressed with another question if he (suspended officer) was the only person holding onto the key to the room? Vaevaso answered: “There is other person too that hold onto the key to the room. We are trying to look into— to see which person the evidence showed that took the money or how the money was removed. At this stage we don’t know who removed the money,” he told journalists.

 So when inquired further why did police only questioned one person, he replied, “We had interviewed the officer (suspended officer) who worked there as part of the investigations. The other part of the investigation is still ongoing as well – so that we can be able to interview both of the people that hold the keys. So we are also looking at that part of the investigations.”

He said these interviews will give details on what they need to “tell us about the case.”

Vaevaso said overall the case is now almost complete.

“We want to give it to the Director of Public Prosecution to see how we can progress this further,” he said.

The more than $300k was money police investigators seized from One Link as part of their investigations into the operations of the controversial scheme. The disappearance of the money from RSIPF custody has angered the public and damaged the reputation of the force.

By Robert Luke Iroga, Editor, SBMOnline Email: [email protected]