Etuate Lavulavu (born 1958 or 1959) is a

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

n politician and former member of the

Legislative Assembly of Tonga The Legislative Assembly of Tonga () is the unicameral legislature of Tonga. History A Legislative Assembly providing for representation of nobles and commoners was established in 1862 by King George Tupou I. This body met every four years ...

for Vavau. He was stripped of his seat in 2016 after being convicted of bribery, precipitating the

2016 Vavau 16 by-election Sixteen or 16 may refer to: *16 (number) *one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016 Films * ''Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film * ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen * ''Sixteen'' (20 ...

. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from

Brigham Young University–Hawaii Brigham Young University–Hawaii (BYU–Hawaii) is a private college in Laie, Hawaii, United States. It is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). BYU–Hawaii was founded in 1955 and it became a sate ...

followed by a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. He publicly claimed to have a PhD from the University of Edenvale, a US

diploma mill A diploma mill or degree mill is a business that sells illegitimate diplomas or academic degrees, respectively. The term ''diploma mill'' is also used pejoratively to describe any educational institution with low standards for admission and gradua ...

, and began referring to himself as "Professor". He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly in the 2002 election. During his first term he was arrested in

, USA in October 2003 over a 1997 immigration scam. In 2004 he was convicted after pleading guilty to two counts of illegal use of a birth certificate. In 2003 Lavulavu apologised to the House after an altercation with fellow MP Akilisi Pohiva. In 2004 he was suspended from Parliament for three days for disrupting the proceedings of the House. He lost his seat in the

2005 Tongan general election General elections were held in Tonga on 17 March 2005. Only nine members of the 30-seat parliament were elected, with the remainder appointed by the King or belonging to the Tongan aristocracy. The Human Rights and Democracy Movement won seven o ...

, but was re-elected in the 2008 election. In the November 2010 general election, standing in newly districted single-seat constituency of Vavau 14, he lost his seat to Lisiate Akolo, obtaining 540 votes (22.7%) to Akolo's 665 (28%). Lavulavu was re-elected in the

2014 Tongan general election General elections were held in Tonga on 27 November 2014. All twenty-six elected seats in the single-chamber Legislative Assembly were up for election, although the monarch, acting on the advice of his Prime Minister, retains the possibility t ...

, but on 29 January 2016 Lavulavu was convicted of bribery by Tonga's Supreme Court for building roads as part of his election campaign and providing inducements to voters. He was also found to have violated election spending limits, and his election was declared void. His wife, Akosita Lavulavu, won the resulting by-election. On 3 March 2018 Lavulavu and his wife ʻAkosita Lavulavu were both arrested on fraud charges stemming from their management of the Unuaki o Tonga Royal Institute in 2016. On 4 June 2021 they were both convicted of 3 counts of obtaining money by false pretenses. On 2 July 2021, he and his wife were each sentenced to six years in prison by the Supreme Court. On 11 October 2022 the convictions were quashed by the Court of Appeal, and the case sent back to the Supreme Court for retrial.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lavulavu, Etuate Members of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga Living people Brigham Young University–Hawaii alumni Brigham Young University alumni Tongan Latter Day Saints People from Vavaʻu Infrastructure ministers of Tonga Public works ministers of Tonga Year of birth missing (living people) Tongan politicians convicted of crimes Prisoners and detainees of Tonga Tongan prisoners and detainees