More VBS links to SME Bank emerge
The continually outward rippling of what has been dubbed the biggest bank robbery in designer suits, and the emerging political intrigue that led to the liquidation of the VBS Mutual Bank playing out in a South African court, have again exposed that bank's links to the downfall of Namibia's SME Bank.
The former CEO of VBS, Andile Ramavhungu, in his responding affidavit in VBS curator Anoosh Roopal's application for his [Ramavhungu's] sequestration, admitted that he had acted as an “agent” for Mamepe Capital since 2013 and that he had “secured” various transactions with Mamepe Capital.
The SME Bank had invested about N$196 million with Mamepe Capital, a black empowerment financial services company in South Africa headed by Mauwane Kotane.
Mamepe Capital reportedly transferred the SME Bank's investment to VBS, which then transferred N$150 million into the bank accounts of the obscure companies Asset Management and Financial Service (AMFS), DMA Consultants, Mamepe Capital Asset Managers, Moody Blue and Transparency.com.
These companies had overlapping account numbers and none of them were registered with the Financial Services Board (FBS), an independent institution established to oversee the South African non-banking financial services industry.
From the details emerging in the N$1.5 billion heist at the VBS Mutual, the South African media described Mamepe Capital as a 'middleman' in one of VBS's first audacious controversies, referring to the SME Bank's investment, which has now seemingly disappeared.
Ramavhungu, in a transcript before the court there, has also admitted that he was an old school friend of Kotane.
It was also reported that while VBS was paying Mamepe Capital, Mamepe in turn paid Ramavhungu almost N$2 million through his consulting firm, Ramavhungu Consulting.
Ramavhungu then gave Mamepe the VBS business.
Court documents filed in the Namibian High Court showed that the scam started to unravel here when auditing firm BDO Namibia started to question the soundness of the SME Bank's investment with Mamepe in August 2016.
The court documents show that during a discussion with BDO Namibia and the Bank of Namibia (BoN) in 2016, questions were raised about the lack of persuasive audit evidence that the N$196 million investment in Mamepe existed, and if it could be recovered.
In September 2016 the former financial manager of the SME Bank, Joseph Banda, said in correspondence with the BoN that the SME Bank had invested N$185 million with Mamepe and VBS Mutual Bank. He did not immediately say whether this investment had the approval of the board of the SME Bank.
Banda later verbally informed the BoN that the SME Bank was expecting N$50 million from VBS Mutual Bank by 30 September 2016, but by 11 October that year that money had not yet returned to the SME Bank.
Still later in October, he informed the BoN that the SME Bank had received N$37 million instead of the N$50 million from VBS.
BoN then instructed the SME Bank to return the N$196 million invested in Mamepe and VBS by late January 2017. This money was never returned, which led to the BoN taking over the affairs of the SME Bank.
CATHERINE SASMAN
The former CEO of VBS, Andile Ramavhungu, in his responding affidavit in VBS curator Anoosh Roopal's application for his [Ramavhungu's] sequestration, admitted that he had acted as an “agent” for Mamepe Capital since 2013 and that he had “secured” various transactions with Mamepe Capital.
The SME Bank had invested about N$196 million with Mamepe Capital, a black empowerment financial services company in South Africa headed by Mauwane Kotane.
Mamepe Capital reportedly transferred the SME Bank's investment to VBS, which then transferred N$150 million into the bank accounts of the obscure companies Asset Management and Financial Service (AMFS), DMA Consultants, Mamepe Capital Asset Managers, Moody Blue and Transparency.com.
These companies had overlapping account numbers and none of them were registered with the Financial Services Board (FBS), an independent institution established to oversee the South African non-banking financial services industry.
From the details emerging in the N$1.5 billion heist at the VBS Mutual, the South African media described Mamepe Capital as a 'middleman' in one of VBS's first audacious controversies, referring to the SME Bank's investment, which has now seemingly disappeared.
Ramavhungu, in a transcript before the court there, has also admitted that he was an old school friend of Kotane.
It was also reported that while VBS was paying Mamepe Capital, Mamepe in turn paid Ramavhungu almost N$2 million through his consulting firm, Ramavhungu Consulting.
Ramavhungu then gave Mamepe the VBS business.
Court documents filed in the Namibian High Court showed that the scam started to unravel here when auditing firm BDO Namibia started to question the soundness of the SME Bank's investment with Mamepe in August 2016.
The court documents show that during a discussion with BDO Namibia and the Bank of Namibia (BoN) in 2016, questions were raised about the lack of persuasive audit evidence that the N$196 million investment in Mamepe existed, and if it could be recovered.
In September 2016 the former financial manager of the SME Bank, Joseph Banda, said in correspondence with the BoN that the SME Bank had invested N$185 million with Mamepe and VBS Mutual Bank. He did not immediately say whether this investment had the approval of the board of the SME Bank.
Banda later verbally informed the BoN that the SME Bank was expecting N$50 million from VBS Mutual Bank by 30 September 2016, but by 11 October that year that money had not yet returned to the SME Bank.
Still later in October, he informed the BoN that the SME Bank had received N$37 million instead of the N$50 million from VBS.
BoN then instructed the SME Bank to return the N$196 million invested in Mamepe and VBS by late January 2017. This money was never returned, which led to the BoN taking over the affairs of the SME Bank.
CATHERINE SASMAN
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