In a protracted court battle that lasted a decade, the National Court has served its verdict on Paul Paraka over the misappropriation of more than K162 million state monies. Mr. Paraka (aged 54) from Western Highlands province was sentenced to twenty (20) years.

Mr Paraka was a senior lawyer and owner of Paul Paraka Lawyers (PPL). In 2000, the Attorney General and Solicitor General’s office engaged Mr. Paraka’s law firm to work on behalf of the state in civil litigation matters. The payments of K162 million were made purportedly for legal fees between 2007 and 2011.

Every year, for five years, Mr Paraka procured a person or persons within the Department of Finance to dishonestly apply monies to his use and the use of others. The monies were paid by way of 65 cheques to a property investment company known as PKP owned by Mr Paraka and through seven other law firms – none of which had any entitlement to the monies.

In the case of the monies paid to the law firms, they at least retained a small part of the monies before paying the balance to the PKP or the Paraka Lawyers.

This was a carefully planned and calculated scheme to distance the accused from the money funnelled and avoid detection.

The National Court found Mr. Paraka guilty of five counts of misappropriation on which ten (10) years were given for each offense. However, it was reduced to 20 years taking into consideration the offender’s health and charitable and professional contributions to the community.