Prominent Australian media outlets, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and the Brisbane Times, have covered the testimony of former FBI Director Louis Freeh during an October 8th District Court hearing. Freeh sharply criticized the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for mishandling the case against Getax Australia: “Freeh said AFP officers did not visit Nauru to pursue the matter when required, nor seek to interview potential witnesses when they visited Australia – let alone push for a joint task force.”

Freeh noted that the AFP’s not even trying to pursue these things was “like having a crime scene and not sending your investigators to visit [it].”  The news report cited Freeh as arguing that “[b]y seemingly concluding, prematurely, that co-operation would not be forthcoming and potential witnesses lacked credibility, the AFP had undermined the investigation…”

Freeh suggested that the AFP should have enlisted outside experts if they lacked expertise in investigating this type of case, noting that “the fact that they were going to go it alone is obvious by the fact that it took them 10 years not to accomplish an efficient investigation.”

The press report described that when Freeh was questioned about the Nauruan political situation and disruption to the legal system and the challenges it might have posed to the AFP, Freeh indicated that “he was aware of criminal investigations being undertaken in wartime Iraq and did not believe Nauru politics were so unusual as to preclude the AFP making more of an effort.”