Treasure hunt leads to prison

A THREAT to kill a former Sydney school teacher over $US40 million ($47.7 million) allegedly fleeced from Japanese investors to fund a hunt for sunken treasure has landed a Gold Coast man in prison in Vanuatu.

A THREAT to kill a former Sydney school teacher over $US40 million ($47.7 million) allegedly fleeced from Japanese investors to fund a hunt for sunken treasure has landed a Gold Coast man in prison in Vanuatu.

Kel Walker, who is also accused of smuggling conman Peter Foster from Fiji in January, was sentenced in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila yesterday to a two-year prison term.

Glenn Fraser, who accused Walker of threatening to kill him and gave evidence resulting in the jailing, told The Australian yesterday he had concerns about the outcome.

"Jail here is pretty squalid," Mr Fraser said. "Let's just say I have got misgivings - but not about the conviction because he did it, he definitely threatened me."

Walker, who has previously been convicted of fraud in Australia, said from Port Vila that he had not threatened anybody. "I was negotiating with him, not threatening him," Walker said. "My role was to try to negotiate a settlement (of the $US40 million)."

A bizarre trial in Vanuatu heard evidence relating to Japanese investors who lost more than $US40 million after putting their trust in New Zealander Gray Clare, Mr Fraser and a Gold Coast-based world-renowned salvager of sunken treasurer, Mike Hatcher.

Mr Hatcher said from Singapore yesterday that there was no treasure hunt, and the Japanese had been misled without his knowledge.

Walker's friend, struck-off Sydney solicitor Andrew Tatar, who is also facing charges in Vanuatu, said that even prosecutors had sought only a wholly suspended sentence. Mr Tatar said Walker had responded furiously to the punishment by the Supreme Court and had thrown food back at him when he took it to his cell late yesterday.