Kamushinda's 'share in the spoils'
Details of the SME Bank looting are being revealed as the bank's former non-executive director files yet another court challenge.
Investigations in the liquidation of the SME Bank show that two companies owned by the alleged mastermind of the grand theft at the bank, Enock Kamushinda, were among the main beneficiaries of the looting.
Kamushinda is the director of both Crown Finance Corporation and Proffex (Pty) Ltd, which handsomely benefited from the monies spirited out of the SME Bank.
A whopping N$79.8 million from the SME Bank was fraudulently transferred to a South African-based cash-in-transit company, Asset Movement & Financial Services (AMFS). Of this, at least N$64 million in hard cash was delivered to a street address in Springs to a certain George Markides, who delivered the cash on behalf of AMFS.
Markides during a commission of inquiry in January this year confirmed under oath that he often delivered cash to Kamushinda, Tawanda Mumvuma (former CEO of the bank), and Zimbabwean lawyer Ovid Chitsiku.
At the inquiry, Markides said he assumed Kamushinda was investing huge amounts of the money “because Kamushinda told him he was the owner of the SME Bank, and Mumvuma told him he was the CEO”. Markides also testified that he had visited Namibia on 29 September and 30 September 2014, presumably to visit Mumvuma.
During this time, he testified, he visited the SME Bank “to see [the]credentials” of the Zimbabweans because by then he claimed he was owed “a lot of money” by Ozias Bvute, also a former director of the SME Bank.
Markides also testified that he had delivered hard cash in Namibia, but claimed that this was not the main purpose for his visit to the country.
The liquidators, David Bruni and Ian McLaren, established that during the time the cash was delivered, Markides had made four calls to Mumvuma, 41 to Kamushinda, 19 to Lyndon Gaidzanwa (also formerly employed in the SME Bank's finance department), and two calls to Chiedza Goromonzi (assistant accountant in the finance department).
Looting continues
In court documents, Tania Pearson, the former legal advisor at the bank who was retained by the liquidators to assist with the investigation into the stolen millions, said Kamushinda's “looting did not stop there”.
Crown Finance, and another of this companies, Heritage Investments (Pty) Ltd, also received direct electronic transfers from the AMFS.
Pearson concluded that a “service agreement” signed between Crown Finance and AMFS was “nothing but a cover-up for money laundering”.
Between 1 April 2015 and 24 August 2016, AMFS electronically transferred N$2.5 million to Crown Finance's bank accounts in Namibia. Heritage Investments received N$1.9 million during the same period.
“There is one conclusion only,” stated Pearson in court documents, “the SME Bank's money, which was misappropriated from the SME Bank and transferred to AMFS, was re-transferred back to Namibia, and directly into the fraudulent corporate entities of Mr Kamushinda.”
Pearson stated that Kamushinda had lied “quite pathetically” in court documents that he had sold Crown Finance in 2012 and was no longer the director of the company by the time the money was laundered through that entity.
CATHERINE SASMAN
Kamushinda is the director of both Crown Finance Corporation and Proffex (Pty) Ltd, which handsomely benefited from the monies spirited out of the SME Bank.
A whopping N$79.8 million from the SME Bank was fraudulently transferred to a South African-based cash-in-transit company, Asset Movement & Financial Services (AMFS). Of this, at least N$64 million in hard cash was delivered to a street address in Springs to a certain George Markides, who delivered the cash on behalf of AMFS.
Markides during a commission of inquiry in January this year confirmed under oath that he often delivered cash to Kamushinda, Tawanda Mumvuma (former CEO of the bank), and Zimbabwean lawyer Ovid Chitsiku.
At the inquiry, Markides said he assumed Kamushinda was investing huge amounts of the money “because Kamushinda told him he was the owner of the SME Bank, and Mumvuma told him he was the CEO”. Markides also testified that he had visited Namibia on 29 September and 30 September 2014, presumably to visit Mumvuma.
During this time, he testified, he visited the SME Bank “to see [the]credentials” of the Zimbabweans because by then he claimed he was owed “a lot of money” by Ozias Bvute, also a former director of the SME Bank.
Markides also testified that he had delivered hard cash in Namibia, but claimed that this was not the main purpose for his visit to the country.
The liquidators, David Bruni and Ian McLaren, established that during the time the cash was delivered, Markides had made four calls to Mumvuma, 41 to Kamushinda, 19 to Lyndon Gaidzanwa (also formerly employed in the SME Bank's finance department), and two calls to Chiedza Goromonzi (assistant accountant in the finance department).
Looting continues
In court documents, Tania Pearson, the former legal advisor at the bank who was retained by the liquidators to assist with the investigation into the stolen millions, said Kamushinda's “looting did not stop there”.
Crown Finance, and another of this companies, Heritage Investments (Pty) Ltd, also received direct electronic transfers from the AMFS.
Pearson concluded that a “service agreement” signed between Crown Finance and AMFS was “nothing but a cover-up for money laundering”.
Between 1 April 2015 and 24 August 2016, AMFS electronically transferred N$2.5 million to Crown Finance's bank accounts in Namibia. Heritage Investments received N$1.9 million during the same period.
“There is one conclusion only,” stated Pearson in court documents, “the SME Bank's money, which was misappropriated from the SME Bank and transferred to AMFS, was re-transferred back to Namibia, and directly into the fraudulent corporate entities of Mr Kamushinda.”
Pearson stated that Kamushinda had lied “quite pathetically” in court documents that he had sold Crown Finance in 2012 and was no longer the director of the company by the time the money was laundered through that entity.
CATHERINE SASMAN
Comments
Namibian Sun
No comments have been left on this article