Former Director of Fijian Holdings Limited Laisenia Qarase may or may not have declared his interest in Fijian Holdings Limited says former FHL Director and Shareholder of Nabuabua Investments – Joe Mar.

Mar was the final defence witness to take the stand and was connected via skype from England.

Mar said that after the government gave a $20million loan to Fijian Holdings Limited – five million class A shares were issued for sale.

Asked whether Qarase verbally declared his interest in Mavana Investments, Cicia Cooperative and Q Ten Investments in an FHL Board meeting for the issue of shares – Mar says he cannot recall.

_Adding – that it does not rule out the option that Qarase declared his interest in the three companies.

Mar told the court – it is also not part of the minutes as everything said in the Board meeting are not included in the minutes.

Mar earlier on told the court that due to the availability of Fijian Holdings shares in 1991 there was an effort to try and sell shares to provincial and tikina councils.

However he says due to the difficulty faced in getting Provincial and Tikina Councils to buy shares, the Board decided to open it to private Fijian owned companies.

Mar’s company Nabuabua Holdings was one company that bought 100,000 shares at $1 each.

He says he managed to raise $20,000 while the remaining $80,000 was taken as loan from the Fiji Development Bank.

He also told the court that he had to fill out an application form for buying of the shares and in it disclosed the name of shareholders, Directors and the application was made sometimes in 1992.

He also confirmed to court that in the Board Meeting he verbally declared his interest in Buabua Investments.

He says taking into account the response from the Fijian Community on buying of FHL shares it would deem right if the Directors buy shares to create some level of confidence amongst other investors.

The trial continues