Cashgate convicts Namata, Kasamba return K24 million

The state has rebuffed calls for a non-custodial sentence to two cashgate convicts who yesterday returned just over K24 million (US$50 955) they stole from government coffers as mitigation for a lenient sentence.

Maxwell Namata and Luke Kasamba, who were convicted a fortnight ago by the Lilongwe High Court, today paid back K24 million plus in cash and assets in form of a vehicle valued by defence at K9million (US$19 108) to offset the loss government suffered.

However, while welcoming the returning of the public resources, state prosecutors rebuffed the gesture as a move designed to escape jail.

Judge Annabel Mtalimanja, who adjourned the matter indefinitely, now mulls over whether the returning of the money should be admissible in mitigation for Namata and Kasamba following several submissions by the state and defence.

Mtalimanja convicted Namata of theft involving K14.4 million while businessperson Luke Kasamba was convicted of laundering K24.1 million respectively.

And apart from the payments, the defence asked Justice Mtalimanja to consider being first offenders, the poor health of one of the convicts, the cooperation with the state during investigations by Namata as reasons for remorse.

“By returning this money, the state has recovered the loss it suffered.

But special prosecutor in the cashgate scandal, Kamdoni Nyasulu, told a jam-packed court that the decision of the duo to return the money was out fear of a jail sentence and not necessarily out of remorse.

“The urge to give back the government money has been compelled by the conviction. This court now has to decide whether this paying back of the money can be considered a remorse because in the whole trial, there have been no evidence to show that the convicts were remorseful,” said Nyasulu.

Nyasulu asked the court for a stiff sentence to deter others and said Kasamba, a former government employee was in breach of trust and lost his chance of using cooperation with the state during investigations as mitigation, when he turned against the state on trial and exercised the right to be silent.

“You cannot eat your cake and have it. He gave us a detailed statement that helped our investigations but decided to be silent in court; that is when he ate his cake,” said Nyasulu.

Nyasulu further urged the court to ensure any custodial sentence for the two charges are run consecutively and not concurrently as adjudged in some cases.

However, this was countered by Namata’s lawyer Ralph Kasambara saying the case had no exceptional and compelling reasons for a shift to such a position.

Namata and Kasamba were answering charges linked to encashment of two government cheques totaling K24.1million through Cross Marketing Limited, a company whose director is Kasamba. One cheque was of K14.4 million, while the other was of K9.7 million.

Four people have so far been convicted for their participation in the country’s biggest financial fraud since independence with the highest prison sentence, a nine-year jail term, meted out to the first person to be arrested Victor Sithole.

Tresa Senzani, a former Principal Secretary at Ministry of Tourism and the highest ranking government official to be convicted so far, was given a three-year custodial sentence.