'Rasputin-like' minister detains four Britons investigating fraud in Brunei
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Your support makes all the difference.Four Britons helping to investigate the tangled financial affairs of the oil-rich state of Brunei are being held in the country on the orders of a "Rasputin-like" minister.
The Foreign Office will press Brunei's immigration service today to explain why the four are being prevented from leaving by the Home Affairs Minister, Pehin Isa, who says there are mistakes in their visas.
Colleagues believe Mr Isa has ordered the detention of the Britons and nine other people because they have become ensnared in feuding over the disappearance of £10bn of Brunei's state funds.
They say Mr Isa refused to let them leave after they asked him about money he received from the Sultan's younger brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah, who spent billions of pounds when he was Brunei's Finance Minister and head of the state investment agency.
The four Britons, Ryan Shaw, a 32-year-old accountant from Tring, Hertfordshire, Christopher Morgan, a 42-year-old administrator from Poole in Dorset, Joe Hage, 39, a lawyer from London, and Sharon Gates, a 40-year-old legal secretary from London, have asked the Foreign Office to act.
Speaking from Brunei last night, Ms Gates said they were free to move about, but could have their passports confiscated if they tried to leave the country. "We have been told to be aware that we could be followed or have our phones tapped so I don't know how to react, never having experienced anything like this," she said.
Ron Lafferty, a London-based lawyer working for Global Evergreen, set up by the Sultan to sort out Prince Jefri's finances, said the accusations about visas were nonsense.
"This has everything to do with Pehin Isa attempting to prevent people from investigating his affairs," he said. "The only story here is the behaviour of a Rasputin-like minister with great powers. He controls the information given to the Sultan."
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