Africa-Press – Malawi. The High Court Judge Chifundo Kachale on Friday, February 4, 2022 convicted Treaser Kaiya Guta and Peter Kaiya Guta for money laundering and forex externalization amounting to US$6 million (about MK5.1 billion).
Kachale, who also revoking their bail, asked the State and the defence lawyers to submit to the court within five days on whether a fine or custodial sentence is the way to go.
It is alleged that the convicts, between May 7, 2016 and February 8, 2019 at Ned Bank and New Finance Bank in Lilongwe used foreign currency amounting to US$ 6,011,500 as business allowances for their purported employees, for a purpose different from what was specified.
The two were also accused of making false statements in writing to Ned Bank and New Finance Bank in their application letters for foreign currency that they were applying on behalf of their employees who were travelling to South Africa by bus.
The two have been found guilty for using foreign currency for a purpose different from the one specified, contravening the Exchange Control Regulations. The third case levelled against them was money laundering.
According to Kachale, the sloppiness and attitude of the banks involved in the process of committing the crimes also contributed to the commission of these crimes. Last week the High Court also revoked bail for Treaser for failing to attend the judgment contravening the bail conditions.
The defence lawyer, Geoffrey Taumbe for the convicts pleaded with court for leniency, arguing that Treaser was attending to an urgent matter in Zomba when she missed the judgement.
The State was jointly prosecuting the matter with the Reserve Bank of Malawi and the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) Steve Kayuni said the State was pleased with the outcome.
“We are glad that the court has agreed with us on this trial. As law enforcement agencies, we are jointly, and in a coordinated fashion, moving forward with the fight against financial crimes as they are a serious sabotage to the economy.
“RBM and DPP officers did a great job on this matter,” said Kayuni.
In February 2019, RBM reported that illegal externalisation of foreign exchange and transfer pricing cases had drained as much as K500 billion at the close of 2018.
However, according to RBM, the money came from unsupported foreign exchange transactions remitted without imports being returned into the country to various countries.
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