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AUCKLAND-BASED TONGAN NOBLE DIES SUDDENLY IN NUKU'ALOFA(New Zealand Press Association Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)Wellington, Feb 25 NZPA - An Auckland lawyer, Tutoatasi Fakafanua ,who was also a hereditary noble in Tonga, with the title Noble Fakafanua, has died suddenly in the island nation's capital, Nuku'alofa. He quit his job as a cabinet minister in Tonga in 2001 after a major scandal involving an American ``court jester'' allegedly lost millions of dollars from a royal trust fund, of which Mr Fakafanua was one of the trustees. The office of Tonga's Prime Minister confirmed that Mr Fakafanua collapsed and died while on a morning walk, Matangi Tonga newspaper reported on its website. He was the second young Tongan noble to die this month: His first cousin, Noble 'Ahome'e, 35, died suddenly in the United States earlier this month and was flown to Tonga yesterday on Thursday and buried today. Mr Fakafanua and Mr 'Ahome'e were both nephews of Queen Halaevalu Mata'aho. Mr Fakafanua, who lived and worked in Auckland, became the seventh holder of the Fakafanua title when his father died in Hawaii in May 2004. The title is held by the owner of three major estates: Ma'ufanga, in Nuku'alofa; Faleloa in Ha'apai; and Nga'akau in Tefisi, Vava'u. Mr Fakafanua became one of the youngest members of the Tongan Cabinet and Privy Council when he became the Minister of Labour, Commerce and Industries and Minister of Tourism in 1991. He was Tonga's Minister of Finance from 1995 to 2001 when he resigned from Government after a major scandal and moved to New Zealand. Mr Fakafanua and Deputy Prime Minister Tevita Tupou were trustees of the $US26.5 million Tongan Trust Fund, largely made up of money collected through the controversial sales of Tongan passports to foreigners. They resigned when the Tongan government claimed that King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV's royal jester Jesse Bogdonoff, -- who doubled as a royal investment adviser -- had defrauded the funds. Bogdonoff was working at Bank of America when he struck up a close relationship with the King after noticing that the kingdom had millions of dollars sitting in a low-interest chequeing account. Bogdonoff persuaded the Government to put him in charge of the trust fund, and in 1999, he and his company Wellness Technologies recommended that the fund invest some $24.5 million in three companies: a Nevada-based purchaser of life insurance policies, an energy start-up company and a dot-com. The money was never recovered. Mr Fakafanua is survived by his wife Princess 'Ofeina, two sons and a daughter. NZPA WGT kca hl |