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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua money laundering trial: Facebook posts question whether Paula and Luther Toleafoa are still together

Kelly Makiha
By Kelly Makiha
Multimedia Journalist·Rotorua Daily Post·
17 Nov, 2021 06:30 AM5 mins to read

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Paula Toleafoa says she was abused by her husband and wasn't working alongside him to launder drug money. Photo / NZME

Paula Toleafoa says she was abused by her husband and wasn't working alongside him to launder drug money. Photo / NZME

Paula Toleafoa's claim she would have left her husband immediately if she knew he was drug dealing has been questioned in court with recent Facebook posts of her professing her love for him.

Paula Toleafoa, 47, is on trial in the Rotorua District Court after pleading not guilty to 69 money-laundering charges relating to spending and depositing cash made from her husband's methamphetamine dealing. Nine other charges have been dismissed since the trial began.

The Crown alleges she knew she was banking and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of drug money over more than three years to December 2018 but it is her defence she was the victim of domestic violence and she didn't know what her husband was up to.

Luther Toleafoa has been convicted of methamphetamine dealing and money laundering. Photo / NZME
Luther Toleafoa has been convicted of methamphetamine dealing and money laundering. Photo / NZME

Luther Toleafoa is in custody after being convicted of drug dealing and money laundering.

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Under questioning today from her lawyer, Steven Lack, Paula Toleafoa said if she knew the money had come from drugs, she would have left her husband and wouldn't have bothered trying to rekindle their marriage.

Crown prosecutor Anna McConachy produced posts from Paula Toleafoa's personal Facebook page and her business Facebook page, Ruff Diamonds NZ, showing the pair together, embracing, kissing and appearing to still be a couple.

McConachy put to Paula Toleafoa that her evidence wasn't correct as the posts showed she was still with her husband, even after he had been convicted of drug dealing on August 6 this year.

The posts included photos of the two embracing, celebrating their wedding anniversary, out for dinner and celebrating Valentine's Day. McConachy said the posts said things such as: "Love you babe", "I still choose you", "Till death do us part", "F*** the system", "F*** corruption" and "Inhale the good s*** and exhale the bulls***".

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All of the posts were after Luther Toleafoa's arrest in December 2018.

Paula Toleafoa admitted she stood by him during his trial but was planning to leave after the convictions.

She said she would continue to post photos of her husband on Ruff Diamonds NZ as it was a marketing tool because customers who bought jewellery from the business liked the "bad boy" image.

When asked by McConachy if she personally made the posts, she said she couldn't remember, despite it being two months ago.

Paula Toleafoa said she had a social media team of five people and any of them could have posted it as if they were her. However, she conceded she had seen the posts and was happy to leave them up on her business page.

"Bad boys want a story and that's what I'm going to give them. I need to create an income and now that I have been plastered through the media as being a criminal it's very hard to try and turn that around and make some lemonade," she told McConachy.

Put to her again she was in fact still with her husband, Paula Toleafoa said "no" and that she was in the process of telling him it was over.

"My personal life with Luther and my Ruff Diamonds life with Luther don't belong hand-in-hand."

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Earlier in evidence she said deposits made to their 31 bank accounts were cash her husband gave her for his half of the bills, or money he asked her to deposit for him.

She said she also made cash for herself buying and selling sunglasses and handbags, making between $800 and $2000 each time.

Lack asked her about a $10,000 cash deposit she made and she said it was given to her by Luther Toleafoa after he made a big profit selling a car.

Asked about a trip she took with her best friend to Fiji costing more than $2700, she said Luther Toleafoa paid cash for the trip from money she understood came from his business or profits selling cars.

"I had been crying to him about how he'd isolated me from my best friends and family. He kept trying to keep me away from them and he felt bad about it."

She said flights to Thailand costing more than $3000 were paid for by Luther Toleafoa in cash because their family went there to support a relative dying of cancer.

Lack took Paula Toleafoa through cash payments for things such as flights, hotel bookings, furniture, jewellery and appliances and each time she said the money came from her husband from profits from the sale of cars or his house washing business.

She said she moved out of their Auckland home and into her own place in 2016 but the couple would come to Rotorua frequently either separately or together. Sometimes they would stay at the Regal Palms Hotel or Rydges Rotorua.

Under cross-examination, McConachy said there appeared to be many hotel bookings in the couple's names at the Regal Palms in 2016, when she said they were separated.

She said there were also bank deposits of cash amounts made with Paula Toleafoa's bank card in Rotorua on the same days as the hotel bookings.

"Isn't it the case, Mrs Toleafoa, that Luther Toleafoa would deal drugs from the Regal Palms and you would bank the cash for him?"

Paula Toleafoa replied: "That is absolutely incorrect".

The trial, which is before Judge Phillip Cooper, continues.

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