{"id":19613,"date":"2022-09-04T10:42:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-04T10:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered"},"modified":"2022-09-04T11:14:32","modified_gmt":"2022-09-04T11:14:32","slug":"looted-funds-recovered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered","title":{"rendered":"Looted funds recovered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited into South African banks last year.<\/p>\n

A total of M50 million was stolen from the government coffers by a syndicate operating in the Ministry of Finance. M40 million has so far been recovered. The money was recovered through the assistance of the South African Asset Forfeiture Unit.<\/p>\n

Police Senior Superintendent Piti Khutlang said in September last year the head of reconciliation in the Treasury Department discovered some anomalies around numerous transactions that were in the bank statements already paid but not in the books of accounts.<\/p>\n

He said a case of fraud, theft and money laundering was then opened with the police. He said a team composed of the police, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) was formed to investigate the theft.<\/p>\n

Three officers from the Treasury Department and nine others were nabbed and have since appeared in court charged with defrauding the government of M50 million. He said the prime suspect, Lehlonohonolo Selete, was denied bail and remains locked up waiting for trial.<\/p>\n

S\/Supt Khutlang said their investigation revealed that about M12 million was in banks in Lesotho while part of it was in the hands of individuals within the country.<\/p>\n

He said they further discovered that M24 million was in South African banks and in the hands of individuals. He said the total is M36 million. He said they also found out that the individuals had also bought movable assets such as cars.<\/p>\n

They had also bought fixed assets such as land and houses. However, he said in Lesotho they only discovered movable assets worth M1.5 million and the fixed assets worth M2.4 million.<\/p>\n

He said they discovered fixed assets in South Africa worth M2.3 million and they are still waiting for movable assets from South Africa. One vehicle has also been recovered.<\/p>\n

S\/Supt Khutlang said the total amount of the money which has been recovered gets to M40 million. He commended the great coordination of the team in investigating this case.<\/p>\n

Jothame Phakisi, from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), said this case is going to help them build up the statistics and evidence to bolster the fight against corruption in Lesotho He said since then they have struck cooperation agreements with other countries to fight corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will also serve as an example to Basotho that crime doesn\u2019t pay,\u201d Phakisi said. Phakisi pleaded with relevant ministries to allocate enough resources so that they can do more in fighting corruption.<\/p>\n

Advocate Sefako Seema from the DCEO appealed to all the ministries, departments and Basotho to fight against corruption in Lesotho. He called for the strengthening of their relationship with South Africa since most of the money is often transferred to South Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a country, we also need to introspect about our seriousness in fighting corruption since the office working on such matters lacks resources,\u201d Advocate Seema said.<\/p>\n

Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli said crime has taken a toll in the country and \u201cthis calls for unity and collaboration among relevant stakeholders\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the increasing number of crime incidents discourages business in Lesotho. \u201cWe need an extended hand where all the resources will be allocated,\u201d Commissioner Molibeli said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this case we have learned a lot since we were working directly with a South African team which has resources,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited into South African banks last year. A total of M50 million was stolen from the government coffers by a syndicate operating in the Ministry of Finance. M40 million has so far been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,278,245],"class_list":["post-19613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-bank","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nLooted funds recovered - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looted funds recovered\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Looted funds recovered\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\"},\"wordCount\":589,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Bank\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\",\"name\":\"Looted funds recovered - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg\",\"width\":1536,\"height\":1024,\"caption\":\"Looted funds recovered\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Looted funds recovered\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Looted funds recovered - Lesotho","description":"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Looted funds recovered","og_description":"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1536,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Looted funds recovered","datePublished":"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered"},"wordCount":589,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Bank","Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","homepage-english","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered","name":"Looted funds recovered - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg","datePublished":"2022-09-04T10:42:35+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-04T11:14:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"THE Ministry of Finance yesterday received M18 million which was part of funds that were stolen in Lesotho and deposited ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_15-6314887bda0b7.jpg","width":1536,"height":1024,"caption":"Looted funds recovered"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/looted-funds-recovered#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Looted funds recovered"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}