Africa-Press – Namibia. Staff Reporter
THE Bank of Namibia (BoN) suffered a blow after the court released Coenraad Botha (63) and wife Charlotte Murove (32) on bail of N$ 50,000 and N$ 30,000 respectively, after failing to find concrete evidence to keep the two locked up.
The two are accused by the central bank of receiving deposits from the public to the tune of some N$160 million without possessing a banking licence. In early March, the central bank released a statement saying that it had investigated the business activities of CBI Exchange Namibia (Pty), which led to the subsequent arrest of the couple.
The two have 64 charges against them, which consist of fraud, 31 counts of conducting a banking business while not authorized to do so, which is a contravention of the Banking Institutions Act of 1998, 31 counts of money laundering, which relates to the contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, and one charge of conducting a Ponzi Scheme, in which money was solicited from investors, with which earlier investors were repaid.
Jozzane Klazen, the residing magistrate in the matter, however, said that the state’s investigations into the case are in a dire state, as the investigating officer did not know the details of his own investigations.
“The state alleges 64 charges with Section 332(5) but is unable or unwilling to disclose to the court and the applicants in relation to which corporate body or bodies the applicants are charged. The prosecutor’s inability to clarify charges appears to be a result of the fact that he never consulted the investigating officer,” Klazen said.
She added that, according to the investigating officer, he would not have arrested the applicants if it was not for the tip-off he received from an anonymous source, through a person he knows at the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), that the applicants were intending to flee. “The information of the source was not verified, except the applicants testifying that they were travelling to South Africa for another legal matter. The court finds that despite the investigation starting in 2022, the applicants were not arrested in the interest of the public or the administration of justice. According to the investigating officer, a certain Mr. Jantjies has intimidated witnesses but he was not arrested, or the applicants in fear of interference with witnesses,” the magistrate said.
She added that the court finds that the state investigations are in such a state that they are not able to disclose or present to the court correct details of charges to indicate how offences were allegedly committed by the applicants.
“As it stands, there are no charges disclosed, only vague allegations that may or may not relate to CBI Exchange, and/or Popaya Investments, or CBI X, or CBI Association, or Uhuru Tribe, a Stokvel, which are all entities mentioned in relation to the applicants. The court finds that the investigations were not at a stage that justified the arrest of the applicants. The charges relate to periods in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 when CBI Namibia did not exist. In those times there had been other directors,” Klazen said.
She added that the state alleges that section 61 is applicable due to the charge of fraud; however, no evidence was led to support the charge annexure.
“It appears according to the state and the investigating officer that the charge of fraud relates to alleged misrepresentation Botha made to Bank of Namibia (BoN) regarding having no intention to start a company in Namibia. No basis was laid to satisfy the elements of fraud… The state vaguely attempted to suggest that because of that alleged misrepresentation, BoN might have stopped or been less interested in investigating the applicant. But no evidence was presented to substantiate such a claim. In any event, the applicants are not facing a charge of fraud related to misrepresentation made to BoN but rather to investors, but no incidences were provided to substantiate this,” the magistrate said.
She concluded that, in the end, it became clear that the investigating officer was not informed or prepared on what charges the applicants face, and that the investigating officer who caused the applicants’ arrests did not have a clear understanding of what charges he was meant to investigate since June 2022 as he testified he is still waiting for the Prosecutor to indicate to him what the charges are.
“It is a dire state of affairs when an investigating officer who has been instructed to investigate a matter since June 2022, in 2024 still does not know the allegations levelled against the suspects. He states that he knows the labels of the charges but not the details that support them. The state objected to bail because it is a complex matter and said they need assistance from South African authorities. There can be no basis to detaining the accused pending investigations that have no end in sight and also there is no evidence on how the applicants could interfere with South African authorities and the state’s request,” Klazen said.
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