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Court reserves ruling in ‘bankgate’ case

 

The High Court in Blantyre yesterday reserved to February 14 ruling on whether first accused and second accused in the ‘bankgate’ case should be tried separately or not, as requested by the defence council.

The case involves a Pakistani businessperson Abdul Rehman and eight others accused of fraud.

On the same day, the court is also expected to make a ruling on an application made by the State that Export Development Fund (EDF) to be separated from four commercial banks involved in the case, namely Standard Bank, Ecobank, National Bank and CDH Investment Bank.

The banks were defrauded out of at least K20.9 billion after Abdullah, who was one of the directors at a local cotton company, Cotton Ginners Africa Limited (CGAL), obtained loan facilities totalling K20.9 billion and fled the country.

Kachale: This is a republic issue

Making its submission, the State through Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Mary Kachale said EDF, whose investigations had been completed, should be separated from the commercial banks whose investigations were still going on.

However, the defence through lawyer Alexus Nampota dismissed the application, arguing that the State had no basis. But he said considering that the first and second accused person Abdul Kader Patel, another director at CGAL, were building cases on each other they should be tried separately.

He argued that it was out of order for the complainant to join the accused in the trial.

But Kachale dismissed the argument, saying complainants in the case were the banks.

She said: “The defence is trying to divide the case between families and there is no basis for that. This cannot be a family issue. It is a republic issue.”

High Court Judge Sylvester Kalembera then adjourned the case to February 14 at 9am for ruling on the two applications.

Rehman fled the country in April 2017 after remitting over $5 million (over K3.6 billion) in foreign accounts, according to an audit report by Audit Consult Advisory Services Limited dated July 23 2017, which is contained in court documents.

The major victim of the fraud is Standard Bank, which is owed K8.5 billion, followed by Export Development Fund (K4.1 billion), Ecobank (K3.5 billion), CDH Investment Bank (K4.5 billion) and National Bank of Malawi (K250 million). n

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