Eremas Wartoto was today sentenced to 10 years in prison. Photo: PNG Attitude / http://asopa.typepad.com/
A Papua New Guinea businessman, Eremas Wartoto, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison with hard labour after he was found guilty of misappropriating millions of dollars.
Wartoto was found to have misused US$2 million of public funds paid to his transport company for the renovation of an East New Britain high school in 2008.
The National Court found that no work had been done on the school after the payment was made to improve the water and sewerage systems.
PNG Loop reports that four years of Wartoto's sentence will be suspended if he repays US$1.2 million in the next four months.
Wartoto earlier rose to prominence in 2013 when a former planning minister, Paul Tiensten, was jailed for misappropraiting US$3.6 million to Wartoto and his company, Travel Air.
