Suva is abuzz with speculation that Charlie Charters is about to “do a runner” – to be “off like a robber’s dog”, in the parlance of his English homeland – rather than return to Fiji later in the month to face trial for allegedly aiding and abetting a whistleblower at FICAC.
Yes, bets are reportedly being taken on whether Charlie is going to breach his bail conditions and become a fugitive rather than take the risk of being convicted and going to jail.
It would mean that those of his friends who provided sureties for him to obtain permission to leave Fiji for work would lose their $20,000. But it is small beer for the Samisoni madrai empire and no-one need be out of pocket if Charlie’s wife, Vanessa, makes good on their losses.
For Charlie, it would mean joining the likes of Rajendra Chaudhry and Aman Ravindra Singh in permanent exile – the first Coalition supporter unable to return to Fiji on pain of arrest. But the chatter is that it would be far more preferable for Charlie not to take the risk of being found guilty and winding up in Naboro.
Of course, It would be a loss of face for him to do a runner but a loss of liberty would be much worse – prison orange replacing those oversized bula shirts that have become all the rage since Charlie’s court appearances, fashionably unbuttoned to the waist and set off with a bone carving and necklace.
What’s changed to turbocharge the speculation about Charlie becoming a fugitive? Simple. When he flew out to Sydney on March 6 having secured permission from the magistrate hearing his case to be able to travel for work, it looked as if his tormentor at FICAC, Lavi Rokoika, would soon be gone, perhaps even before he got back at the end of the month.
That would have been the consequence of the Judicial Services Commission being able to persuade the President, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, to accede to its demand to remove Lavi Rokoika in line with the ruling by Justice Dane Tuiqereqere that her appointment on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, was unlawful.
Sadly for Charlie, that isn’t going to happen. Lavi Rokoika stays and the Prime Minister is now taking Justice Tuiqereqere’s judgment to the Court of Appeal, with two New Zealand Kings Counsel – Dr Andrew Butler and Professor Philip Joseph – pitting their constitutional skills against the ruling by a relatively inexperienced judge with a background in personal accident compensation.
In the meantime, the application also includes a stay on the proceedings of all the judicial review cases currently before the courts arising from the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry. If that is granted – and there is no reason to think it won’t be – none of these cases will be heard until after the result of the Prime Minister’s appeal is known. Which could be many months away.
It is a crushing end to Charlie’s dream of Barbara Malimali being reinstated to FICAC and for all of Lavi Rokoika’s prosecutions – including those of Manoa Kamikamica and Biman Prasad – to magically go away. And he was evidently also hoping that it would signal the end of FICAC’s prosecution against him. Alas.
Will he be coming back to Fiji by March 26 – as the magistrate, Shageeth Somaratne, has ordered – now that his dreams have been shattered? We’ll know soon enough. But you don’t have to be Einstein to be left wondering, given some of Charlie’s bizarre conduct from Australia, where he’s meant to be busy working but from where he is still waging war on his adversaries in Fiji.
Wouldn’t you think he would keep quiet and at least reduce the possibility of being in contempt of the proceedings or causing further offence? That’s what most normal people would do. But not our Charlie. He remains on the warpath and keeps prodding the hornet’s nest, which includes an astonishing Facebook attack on the integrity of the Prime Minister’s lawyer who is part of the team seeking a judicial review of the Tuiqereqere decision .
Charlie specifically and quite unjustifiably targets Simione Valenitabua, blaming him for persuading the Prime Minister to mount the appeal that is upsetting the apple cart for Charlie and his local gang caught up in the CoI.
FACT: It simply isn’t true that it was on the basis of Simione Valenitabua’s advice that the Prime Minister decided to proceed with his appeal. This has been simmering beneath the surface since the beginning of last year, when the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry recommended that the President – on the advice of the Prime Minister – challenge the position of the JSC that it did not have the legal authority to suspend Barbara Malimali as FICAC Commissioner. It is the same opinion that Sitiveni Rabuka will now be relying on to argue that he was justified in removing Malimali altogether and recommending the appointment of Lavi Rokoika in her place.
That opinion came from Professor Philip Joseph KC – New Zealand’s foremost constitutional expert – and Grubsheet obtained and published it in these columns as long ago as February 2025. It is well worth revisiting, Dear Reader, because it outlines the basis of the upcoming appeal.
That appeal has had a tortured birth. Dr Andrew Butler had already been engaged and started work on it last month when the Prime Minister suddenly changed his mind and announced that it would not proceed. Of course, he has since changed his mind again and the appeal has been lodged after all.
Dr Butler has been re-engaged and it will soon be show-time, which has sent Charlie Charters and his kai vata into a virtual frenzy of anxiety and rage. Because they know that if the appeal succeeds, Barbara Malimali – their protector – will never be coming back. And their tormentor, Lavi Rokoika, will be cemented in place.
Dr Butler and Professor Joseph aren’t “unnamed overseas counsel”, as Charlie is risibly claiming. They’ve been in the mix for many months, And Simione Valenitabua isn’t driving this appeal at all. Dr Butler will argue the case as lead counsel, with Professor Joseph as consultant and expert witness and Valenitabua will be very much junior counsel as third member of the team.
So why is Charlie Charter’s peddling this false account? One word. Desperation. If Lavi Rokoika stays at FICAC and Barbara Malimali isn’t reinstated, leqa. Leqa levu. For Charlie and all of his cronies who are simultaneously in the courts trying to overturn the findings of the CoI.
That desperation is also evident in Charlie’s astonishing response to Grubsheet’s exclusive report on Monday that Frank Bainimarama is a founding member of the proposed FijiansFirst party and our observation that this poses the greatest threat to the re-election prospects of the Coalition parties.
Charlie is bordering on the hysterical about the prospect of the former Prime Minister’s return. Why? Because for the second time in a week, he and his cronies can see the game getting away from them.
Imagine. Barbie doesn’t make it back to FICAC and Lavi stays and continues the corruption watchdog’s pursuit of Charlie, Manoa, Biman and whoever else might be in the pipeline. And to make matters worse, the dreaded Frank Bainimarama emerges from the political wilderness as the main force behind a party that now arguably poses the greatest challenge to the Coalition.
Charlie says I am “wetting my panties with excitement” about Bainimarama’s prospective return. Having played a significant role in dislodging him in the first place, I can assure the world that my own panties are dry. On the contrary. It is Charlie who is sh*tting his pants not only about the prospect of Bainimarama’s political resurrection but before that, Sitiveni Rabuka’s appeal against the Tuiqereqere ruling that will keep Lavi Rokoika in at FICAC and Barbara Malimali out.
If the current rumours are true, more FICAC charges against our hero are pending, including a violation of the Commissions of Inquiry Act for his repeated “insults” directed at Justice David Ashton-Lewis, who was recently cleared of allegations of fraud brought against him by the Chief Justice, supported by Charlie Charters, and Victor Lal of Fijileaks.
Under the circumstances – and I am not inciting anyone to escape justice – I wouldn’t be coming back to Fiji were I in Charlie’s position and when the ground has shifted so dramatically since he left.
What do you think, Fiji? Would you?
———–
First Charlie’s obvious sign of panic about the prospect of a Bainimarama comeback. (For the record, I do not qualify for a pension and I repeat: My knickers are bone dry).
And then Charlie’s astonishing attack on Simione Valenitabua. Factually incorrect in that he did NOT advise the Prime Minister to change his mind about appealing the Tuiqereqere decision and totally irrelevant to the proceedings that are pending.
On the question of Valenitabua’s alleged professional transgressions, it’s worth emphasising that the man rumoured to be the Prime Minister’s preferred successor, Filimoni Vosarogo, has had three findings of professional misconduct made against him. And the Deputy DPP, John Rabuku, has also fallen foul of the Independent Legal Services Commission.
Just saying. As if these things are unusual in Fiji.
How’s that for an axe job, Fiji? Crikey.
And for an insight into the arguments that will be advanced in the Court Appeal, presuming leave is granted, here’s what we reported as long ago as the beginning of last year.
Finally, for the pleasure of Grubsheet’s readers, a photoshoot of our dedicated follower of islands fashion.
Oh dear. This would definitely be a comedown. But nothing Charlie wouldn’t be able to handle.
After all. He may be Fijian. But he is also an Englishman. And of the stiff upper lip variety even if he is flabby everywhere else.
We all knew Charlie Charters will abscond. He will end up in Naboro picking up sandsoap if he returns.
You just don’t like Charlie, eh GD?
You’re right. I don’t like him. I love him. Great entertainment. If he didn’t exist, I’d have to invent him.
😂😂😂
There must be something wrong with a guy who wears a green jacket in hot and humid weather in Suva.
You’d be a pretty poor inventor to come up with something like that. I’d stick to what you are very good at, not sure really what we’d do without you.
Grubsheet is the first thing I look at when I wake up, every morning.
Everyone does, both sides of the divide.
Charlie banana got off lightly for a mere FJD20k. Bought his way out a real log jam for peanuts.
For a C like ‘wilson’ it doesn’t matter there’s a two tier justice system in Fiji.
For C like ‘wilson’ it does matter nearly 40% ot then population are soon to become second class citizens in the land of generational birth.
For like-minded Cs it doesn’t matter we have a jackass clown of a Chief Justice dishing out selective justice.
For like minded Cs, it doesn’t matter failed, broke, dunderhead, lawyers are allowed to make monumental life-impacting decisions based on limited knowledge and tunnel vision world view.
It doesn’t matter we have a pedophile president.
It doesn’t matter that we have the most corrupt government ever.
For Cs like ‘wilson’ it doesn’t matter we have out of control drug, HIV, teen pregnancy, a breakdown in social cohesion, and corrupt police.
Cs like ‘wilson’are very concerned about white long loaf Jale banana.
What a C, this ‘wilson ‘ fella is.
Noodles,you calling me a C well i call you a B !!! hahaha
Charlie has been foisted on the nation by his corrupt friends in the media as if he were some kind of national hero. Stanley has admitted on FB that they were having grog together the night before Charlie was charged. Tanya Waqanika, Barabara’s “lawyer,” was also heard boasting in a Suva pub that she is in regular touch with Stanley and is corruptly using the media to derail the COI findings.
This is the same media who Biman the Betrayer scandalously gave millions to and you can bet that the Betrayer’s shadowy hand is pulling the strings from behind the scenes to undermine the PM and President. Just look at how cosy Biman is with Barbara and Tanya in today’s court appearance, sporting his usual ear-to-ear conman’s smile.
Fortunately, the people of Fiji can see right through this façade. We are not so easily fooled by the screaming of these two obese women and their mediocre friends in the media. The truth is that Charlie is a self-righteous and sanctimonious prick who acts as if he and he alone has all the solutions for Fiji’s problems. He is not a whistle-blower and he is not a journalist, because those two terms imply fairness and neutrality. Charlie is a political operative who has been actively damaging public trust in Fiji’s institutions on behalf of his friends, Wylie, “I have the Means” and others, and he should be taken to task for it.
Oh and Charlie: You are not fit to shine Bainimarama’s shoes. He saved this country from anarchy in 2000 – the same anarchy your late mother-in-law was actively trying to foment. Frank has done more for this country than you could ever dream of and you could not measure up even if you tried. We look forward to his return to political leadership as soon as possible.
Hard not to see this as a narcissism of small differences, GD…
Give you this falla and his mumu shirt?
Fire the thing again.
I’m sure a journalist would wonder whether Mr Nagan from Sherani is the lawyer advising about an appeal.
I don’t know who the lawyer is but it may not be Valenitabua, and it seems unfair to single him out for this treatment.
Did you read the article? It was NOT Valenitabua, not “may not be”. And yes, it is very unfair to target someone like this without establishing the facts. It’s a vicious and totally disproportionate attack on an individual designed, one again, to undermine the PM’s perfectly legitimate right to appeal the Tuiqereqere decision and allow justice to take its course.
Charlie Charters doesn’t want to even acknowledge the two NZ KCs because their reputations are impeccable and it doesn’t suit his purposes. He wants to lay the blame on Valenitabua and make him the target of local criticism. It’s disgraceful.
I presume you are referring to Hemendra Nagin, not Nagan, the Managing Partner of Sherani. I know he has been representing Justice David Ashton-Lewis but I have no knowledge about whether he has been lobbying the PM. But I repeat: For well over a year, Rabuka has had the opinion from Professor Philip Joseph KC that he has the right to appoint and remove FICAC Commissioners. It’s just that it has taken him this long to act on it.
Yes Rabuka knew he had aces up his sleeves.
Run Charlie run…
Re Sociopath etc and Sydney “Pensioner”:
Charlie’s description of Bainimarama and Graham Davis is meant to insult, humiliate and slander. Ageism discrimination in reference to Davis whilst addressing him as a pensioner. It’s an insult against people who have reached the relevant country of residence’s retirement age.
A pensioner who is over 55 ( Fiji) or 65 ( overseas) could counter that Charlie looks and behaves like a retarded homeless incontinent junkie and that too before reaching pensioner age. If I were a pensioner I’d be inclined not to apply the brakes on my mobility scooter should I encounter Charlie on the footpath, or let him feel a dropped lawn bowl on his foot…or the whack of a pensioner’s umbrella on his rather large frame.
The former AG (ASK) had a medical condition requiring him to travel. It was denied.
The current Victoria’s fashion model who is setting a new fashion trend with his bula shirts asked to be allowed to travel for [alleged] work purposes and it was approved.
When you have reputable iTaukei friends in Fiji or even married into prominent iTaukei households, doors definitely open and “all animals are equal but some are more equal then others” really applies.