PAPUA New Guinea’s Immigration Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso, has revealed that the PNG Immigration and Citizenship Authority office is investigating how Mei Lin, also known as ‘Gigi’, a China-born businesswoman accused of orchestrating a methamphetamine “black flight” in March last year, was able to obtain her PNG citizenship.
This follows the publication of an investigative news article by Inside PNG and partner OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) on the 26th of January this year that revealed Mei Lin appeared to have falsified key parts of her citizenship application.
Mei Lin, 41, was charged in Brisbane in January by the Australian Federal Police for allegedly helping to facilitate the smuggling of 71.5kg of methamphetamine (or crystal meth) with a street value of over K33million from PNG to Australia last year by light plane; in what police have argued was intended to be the first of a series of smuggling attempts.
According to the PNG Police and the Court, the dangerous drug was packed in over 80 small plastic bags and was transported to Bulolo Airstrip and was transported by air on a black-flight to Australia. Mei Lin has pleaded not guilty, before the Court in Brisbane.
Inside PNG and international partner OCCRP, in January revealed in an investigative report how Lin, a powerful businesswoman in the city of Lae, built a web of ties with prominent PNG citizens. She owns dozens of businesses including KC 2, located at Lae’s 7th Street, where 71.5 Kg of crystal meth was stored and then transported to Bulolo.
The report also revealed that she appeared to obtain PNG citizenship in 2016 by falsely claiming to have attended two elite local schools in the capital city, Port Moresby.
“We understand that the person that was arrested is a PNG citizen, and Immigration is currently investigating the process of how she got her citizenship,” PNG’s Deputy Prime Minister and Immigration Minister, John Rosso, told Inside PNG in Lae last week.
Among other details, Inside PNG and OCCRP’s January investigation revealed that Lin’s 2016 citizenship application included a letter — rife with grammar and spelling errors — purporting to confirm her attendance at Port Moresby Grammar School that school authorities say was signed by a non-existent staff member and labelled the document as fraud.
This follows a joint investigation in June 2023 by Inside PNG Investigative Journalists and OCCRP who visited the schools Mei Lin claimed she attended in Port Moresby when applying for her PNG citizenship. The school Administrations of the two elite schools, Port Moresby Grammar and Port Moresby International confirmed that Mei Lin has never attended these schools, nor graduated from these institutions.
Inside PNG met with then PNG Chief Migration Officer Stanis Hulahau last year and revealed how Mei Lin got her citizenship. Hulahau shockingly told Inside PNG that there would be an inquiry into how she got her citizenship, however, that didn’t happen.
Lin’s questionable citizenship application is not her only entanglement in PNG’s immigration system.
Reporting by Inside PNG and International Partner OCCRP and other media has also revealed that companies linked to Lin have benefitted from a controversial Australian-funded program to care for refugees that is now being probed for corruption.
Australian authorities have also alleged that Lin ordered one of her accomplices to pay A$10,000 (US$ 6,546) to a Sydney bank account in the name of PNG’s then-chief migration officer, Stanis Hulahau, in order to obtain a visa to travel to PNG to take part in the drug trafficking scheme. Hulahau resigned in February and has not been charged with any crime.
However, Immigration Minister and Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, told Inside PNG last week that the allegations are serious and investigations are underway by KPMG, to prove the allegations against the then Chief Migration Officer, Stanis Hulahau.
“Allegations are allegations until completion of all the necessary investigation and if prosecutions if any, this should be put in place,” said Rosso.
Meanwhile, 15 people have been charged over the March 2023 meth flight. Eight men, including six PNG nationals and two Chinese citizens, are facing trial in PNG. Lin was the seventh person charged in Australia.
An Inside PNG Investigation! ©
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