Botswana clears Simbi of money laundering
Botswana has cleared South Africa-based Malawian construction industry mogul Ashan Simbi Phiri of involvement in a suspected money laundering scheme.
Botswana’s Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) said its investigation established that the billionaire businessperson followed appropriate procedures in obtaining foreign exchange in South Africa which he was thought to have smuggled into the diamond-rich nation, according to a report published in Botswana’s English language daily newspaper, Mmegi, last week.
DCEC was investigating Phiri over his alleged involvement in illegal transfers of large amounts of cash in United States dollars from South Africa to Botswana.
However, Mmegi reported that the DCEC cleared Phiri before that country’s High Court of wrongdoing in acquiring the US dollars which he deposited into Botswana’s bank accounts.
“Updating the court, the DCEC investigating officer Mompoloki Snax Rapulane, in his affidavit, said he had found that Phiri had followed due process in requesting for foreign currency from South African authorities, the Reserve Bank,” reads the paper’s edition of August 25 2017.
This presentation was in contrast to Rapulane’s earlier assertion that an analysis of Phiri’s accounts, inter-account transactions and different currency cash deposits into other accounts, made him believe that a financial crime of money laundering had been done.
Phiri has insisted that he followed all the correct channels when getting the funds from his base in South Africa to Botswana where his companies have subsidiary operations and projects.
Reacting to DCEC turn, Phiri’s Malawi spokesperson who is also Khato Civils Limited media and public relations manager, Taonga Botolo, said Rapulane’s statement vindicated Phiri’s contention that he was not into illicit business such as money laundering as “his detractors would want the world to believe”.
Phiri is chairperson of Khato Civils Limited and South Zambezi, companies in construction, engineering and infrastructure development specialising in water and sanitation projects.
In a related development, the High Court in Botswana has reserved its judgement in a case in which Khato Civils Botswana is suing the DCEC for the partial freezing of its bank accounts.
DCEC applied to the court for Khato Civils Botswana’s bank accounts last year after suspecting money laundering offences but Phiri had insisted that the money was accordingly applied for through authorised money dealers in South Africa for purposes of setting up and running of Khato Civils Botswana business operations.
Phiri is suspected to have moved about 24 million Botswana pula in batches in foreign currency into various Stanbic Bank accounts in Botswana at different intervals between 2010 and 2014 as he set up his company’s subsidiary in Botswana.
As the case resumed last Wednesday before Justice Michael Leburu to review the partial freezing of the accounts, Khato Civils lawyer Tengo Rubadiri requested the court to disburse the whole of the remaining 14 million pula to his clients to continue running their business operations.
In Malawi, Phiri’s Khato Civils is involved in the Lake Malawi Water Project that seeks to pump water from Salima to the capital city Lilongwe. The $500 million project has, however, drawn criticism over the manner the contract was awarded as well as well as the lack of environmental impact assessment studies as provided under the Environmental Management Act. n
