Commission of Inquiry Judge faces police probe

Serious allegations of decep­tion, dishonest appropriation of public funds and fraudulent misrepresentations have emerged against Commission of Inquiry (CoI) Judge, Justice David Ashton-Lewis.

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) lodged the complaint with the Criminal Investigations Depart­ment (CID) on July 29, 2025, follow­ing two separate emails by Charlie Charters informing the JSC and the Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, about the result of his inquiry into the qualifications and credentials of Justice Ashton-Lewis.

Justice Ashton-Lewis is not aware of the nature of the allegations. He maintains that he did not falsify his qualification, nor did he mislead the judiciary and the Government.

The JSC has requested the CID to undertake a full and thorough investigation into the matter. This masthead understands that the CID has started its investigations.

The letter of complaint was signed by the secretary of the JSC and Chief Registrar, Tomasi Bainivalu.

Emails

Charlie Charters, who is listed as a main complainant in the matter, ad­mitted to this masthead that he had sent the emails to the JSC, copying the Prime Minister on June 28, 2025, and July 11, 2025.

Mr Charters was marketing man­ager of the Fiji Rugby Union and CEO of the Pacific Islanders Rugby Alliance in the early 2000s. He is also a former journalist.

“It was two emails that I shared as a courtesy to the JSC and PM. The JSC would have been the entity that agreed to Ashton-Lewis joining the Senior Counsel (SC), so I contacted them as a courtesy. And I wrote to the President on July 3 because it was his office as the head of all three branches of government that empowered the CoI,” he said via Fa­cebook Messenger.

Mr Charters said, in his June 28 email, had shared what he had writ­ten to the Queensland Bar Associa­tion asking if the association could verify whether Justice Ashton-Lew­is was entitled to refer to himself as a Senior Counsel as he was doing both in Australia and Fiji.

On July 11, Mr Charters shared with the JSC and PM a copy of an article that was to be published in the newspaper on July 12 question­ing the document integrity of the COI Report including why the re­port, delivered on May 1, included pages dated May 14 amongst other very obvious strangeness.

“I had written to the President, his office and the PM on July 3 raising these same questions. Having re­ceived no reply, and thinking these were not small matters, I offered to write the article,” he said.

When asked on what prompt­ed him to inquire about Justice Ashton-Lewis, Mr Charter said the COI was an important moment in Fiji’s history.

“It’s the first time that two critical offices created by the Bainimarama regime and arguably manipulated by them, have come under intense scrutiny - the Electoral Commis­sion and FICAC.”

Charlie Charters.

Nature of complaint

JSC alleges that Justice Ashton-Lewis had deceived the Govern­ment and, in the process, unlawfully obtained allowances and financial benefits to which he was not alleg­edly entitled to.

“The financial loss incurred by the State as a result of this conduct is currently estimated to exceed FJ$2 million - $3 million,” the letter of complaint stated.

“Preliminary information sug­gests that David Ashton-Lewis knowingly falsified his academic and professional qualifications with the intent to mislead the judi­ciary and the Government of Fiji.”

The letter indicated that the JSC had conducted its own assessments based on the two email correspond­ences by Mr Charters.

“We have found some prima fa­cie evidence suggesting that David Ashton-Lewis may have engaged in conduct warranting criminal pros­ecution under various statutory provisions within Fiji’s legal frame­work.”

The JSC alleges that Justice Ashton-Lewis is not an SC, as indi­cated by the Papua New Guinea Law Society, where Justice Ashton-Lew­is had served as Officer in Charge of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for eight years from 1984 to 1992.

In concluding the complaint, the JSC stated “only after establishing the factual and evidentiary founda­tion should any prosecutorial steps maybe considered under the appro­priate statutory provisions”.

The judge

Justice Ashton Lewis told this newspaper that he was contacted by his long-time friend, Mr Rabuka, in October last year to preside over the CoI. Justice Ashton-Lewis is famil­iar with the legal system in Fiji and the region, particularly PNG.

“Since 1997, I have come and gone from Fiji, serving its people,” he said.

“Some of them I called friends they’re obviously not friends now because I did one thing, I upheld the rule of law.”

Justice Ashton-Lewis said he was recognised as a senior counsel by the late PNG chief justice, Sir Buri Kidu, in the absence of a formal Queen’s Counsel or King’s Counsel system.

“I was 39 years old, and I was told I was entitled to style myself Sen­ior Counsel. But when I came back to Australia, I did not style myself SC.”

Justice Ashton-Lewis said his growing reputation, while serving in PNG, reached the attention of the judiciary.

“Three years before I left [PNG], the Chief Justice contacted me and said, ‘We recognize you in PNG as Senior Counsel, and you’re entitled to call yourself that and style your­self SC,’” Lewis recalled.

Prime Minister Rabuka remains silent on the matter. He is in New Zealand before flying to India later this week.