Skyline director nowhere to be seen
A CHINESE man who left an unpaid bill of more than $87,000 with Heritage Park Hotel in Honiara is believed to have slipped out of the country.
Jason Liu Tao, of Skyline Investment Group, checked into the hotel on July 4 and was supposed to check out on 31 August 2015.
But two weeks ago, he disappeared from the hotel without checking out while his bill rose to $87,389.50.
He left behind a few personal belongings inside his hotel room.
Attempts to locate him in Honiara for comments have proven futile.
However, sources the Solomon Star spoke to believed Mr Tao has already left the country.
“He may have left when he realised his lies are going to be exposed soon or he left using a fake passport,” one source said.
“If he used a second passport on his departure, it is highly likely he may have paid his way out through immigration.
“For you cannot enter the country with one passport and depart using another. It is illegal to do that,” the source added.
Attempts to get information from the Immigration Division about Mr Tao’s likely departure have not been forthcoming on Thursday.
We’ll try again today.
Mr Tao is one of the directors of Skyline Investment, a Chinese company the Sogavare government had engaged to build 5,000 homes for public servants in Honiara.
Skyline also promised to rehabilitate Honiara International Airport and upgrade the road from Henderson to the city.
But Skyline’s true colours were exposed last week when a Chinese man claimed Mr Tao had defrauded more than 50,000 investors in China before coming to the Pacific.
Apart from the unpaid hotel bill, Skyline also had outstanding phone bills with Telekom amounting to more than $10,000.
Our Telekom had since disconnected the mobile phone number the company had been using.
Special Secretary to the Prime Minister, Rence Sore on Thursday told the Solomon Star he’s not making any further comments on the Skyline saga.
Mr Sore was the man the Prime Minister’s Office tasked to deal with Skyline about its proposed investments here.
From Fiji where he’s accompanying Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, Mr Sore said in a text message:
“I won’t be commenting further but am seeking legal redress on return. All things said about me are wrong, fabricated and misleading.
“I reserve my comments for the appropriate medium and not the media,” he said.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Leadership Code Commission, Francis Luza, said the laws allowed for investigations to be carried out into the conduct of leaders who demean or had brought the offices they hold into disrepute.
Mr Luza said this included leaders or public servants who engaged in actions or dealings that demean the public office they hold.
By AATAI JOHN
