BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
More damning allegations against the One Link money scheme have surfaced in court.
A prosecution witness who claim to be one of the mentors of the One Link Pacifica money scheme revealed in court yesterday that from nine deposits he made from December 24, 2019 to February 20, 2020 no payments or refunds have been made.
Prosecution witness Thomas Anitau was giving evidence in court on the case against Gerard Tauohu who was charged with five counts of simple larceny relating to One Link.
Anitau said he was introduced to the scheme in September 2019 by a teacher from Tamlan and joined One Link scheme as a customer.
“When I joined one-link I also introduced the scheme to others in which many people followed me and registered to join one-link, the teacher who is my mentor then suggested to me, I can register as a mentor since I have many clients.
“Therefore, on December 19 2019 I registered and started to register clients under me,” Anitau said.
He said he started collecting money from December 20 to 23 and then went to Rifle Range area and deposited the money there.
“I collected the monies and recorded how many people who came and registered under my link and on December 23 2019 I closed the forms for that day and the next day December 24 I went to Rifle Range with the form containing the names of those people joined and the monies and deposited to Isom Dora,” Anitau said.
He said the person who received the monies from him was Isom Dora and the accused, Gerard, was one of the staff who worked with the scheme.
He told the court, since joining One Link as one of the mentors he had made nine deposits, all of which had not received any returns by way of refund or payment.
Prosecution also questioned him whether any follow-up was made; Anitau said they made follow-ups with One Link almost every day but were told continuously that the monies were not ready.
Tauohu was arrested in relation to this case by police after receiving complaints from One Link mentors and customers who had not received their payments from the director as promised.
Allegation said that Tauohu obtained more than $400,000 from six mentors between December 2019 and February 2020 and failed to pay them their promised interests.
He then allegedly escaped to Malaita and was arrested after police received complaints from the scheme’s mentors and customers who had invested in the scheme last year but were yet to receive their payments.
The Office of the Director Public Prosecution appears for the crown while Ronald Dive represents the accused.
Trial continues before Deputy Chief Magistrate Ricky Iomea.
