Departures of note

Noah Musingku was a Bougainvillean con man who became one of the South Pacific's most infamous fraudsters. In the late 1990s he launched U-Vistract in Port Moresby, a Ponzi scheme promising investors 100 per cent interest per month, which drew in thousands of people across Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Australia and fleeced millions of dollars before authorities shut it down. He even opened a branch of his self-styled Royal Reserve Bank of Papaala near Papua New Guinea's central bank. Facing arrest, Musingku fled to the Solomon Islands and then to his home village of Tonu in southern Bougainville, where he declared himself King Peii II of Papaala, formed an armed militia to keep authorities and disgruntled investors at bay, and printed his own currency, the Bougainville kina. His self-declared kingdom made him a lasting holdout in Bougainville's independence politics, and his death was confirmed by the member for South Bougainville in Papua New Guinea's national parliament.