[1] He was re-elected in 2007 for a second term of Parliament as Minister for National Planning and District Development, but lost his portfolio in August 2011 when a defection of MPs saw the government of Michael Somare disbanded.
Tiensten denied the allegations of fraud, explaining that the four landowner associations had signed the Benefits Sharing Agreement for the Liquefied Natural Gas project, and so the Government, in return, made the commitment to facilitate the release of infrastructure funds to them.
It was alleged that Tiensten conspired with Travel Air's owner, businessman Eremas Wartoto, to make the payment while he was National Planning Minister, despite being aware that the company was inactive.
Tiensten had initially fled to Australia in September 2011 when summoned for questioning by the Investigation Task Force Sweep, but was arrested in Papua New Guinea upon his return in November.
[6][7][8] Tiensten was later arrested in November 2011 by the Investigation Task Force Sweep on three further charges for diverting PGK 3.4 million of government funding to Tolpot Services Ltd, of which he was both a shareholder and a director.