A former civil servant, Viliame Katia, who is currently imprisoned, has had his non-parole period reduced from 22 years to 20 years by the Supreme Court. Katia, who previously served as acting deputy official receiver, was convicted of corrupt practices that caused a loss of $4.1 million to the Office of the Receiver’s bankruptcy and liquidation accounts. He received a 14-year prison sentence from Suva magistrate Shageeth Somaratne in 2017 after being found guilty on multiple charges, including 11 counts of corruption, three counts of abuse of office, four counts of forgery, one count of embezzlement, one count of providing false information to a public servant, one count of unauthorized data modification, and one count of gaining financial advantage.
In 2018, following an appeal by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption, Katia’s sentence was increased to 23 years with a non-parole period set at 22 years by acting Chief Justice Salesi Temo. After this, he filed another appeal to the Supreme Court, which held a hearing on August 16. The justices noted that although the embezzled funds have not been returned, they see potential for Katia to redeem himself, as he is still relatively young. They expressed hope that he would eventually re-enter society as a law-abiding citizen after serving his time.