A former senior civil servant who is facing a prison sentence of fourteen years for stealing more than four million dollars from the Bankruptcy Account over a period of eight years appeared in court today.
Viliame Katia and the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption are both appealing for the sentence.
FICAC is filing an appeal after Katia had pleaded Guilty to the offence.
Justice Salesi Temo told both parties to file and serve their written submissions.
FICAC will include the grounds of their appeal in the written submissions.
The matter will be recalled on the 23rd of October to check that all submissions are filed.
Katia was convicted of three counts of Abuse of Office for Gain, four counts of Forgery, one count of Embezzlement by Servant, one count of False Information to Public Servant, one count of Unauthorised Modification of Data and one count of Obtaining Financial Advantage.
Katia abused the authority of his office by making payments to himself between 2008 and 2016 – amounting to a little over four million dollars.
He created false emails and internal memos stating creditors were willing to accept reduced payments from their bankrupt debtors.
These payments were then sent from the Official Receiver’s Bankruptcy account to his own.
Katia is eligible to apply for parole after serving twelve years in prison.
