AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Corruption and Economic Crimes Division of the High Court has ordered the confiscation by the government, of property valued at over 16.7bn/- owned by two foreigners, Manon Elisabeth Hubenthal and Frank Robert Ricketts, who were conducting a pyramid scheme.
Judge Elinaza Luvanda ruled in favour of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after granting his application for forfeiture orders against Hubenthal, a resident of Greven in Germany, Ricketts, who resides at Blackwats, in the United Kingdom and IMS Marketing Tanzania Limited.
The judge said that the DPP sufficiently proved the application on balance of probability after going through the evidence produced through two affidavits by State Attorney Estazia Wilson and Investigator, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Fadhili.
In the two affidavits, the two had explained detailed accounts showing how the two foreigners and the company, the respondents in the matter, were involved in committing crimes of conducting the pyramid scheme and money laundering.
The judge was satisfied that the money in two bank accounts with a total sum of 1,351,597.79 US dollars and another account with 5,377,306.56 Euros, both held in the name of IMS Marketing Tanzania Limited at Bank of Africa (BOA) Limited, was proceeds of crime, thus, dirty money.
According to him, the respondents in the matter did not show up to defend their side, including filing counter affidavits in attempts to oppose the application despite being served through publication of the matter, a consequence of which the application sailed unopposed.
He noted that the DPP filed an economic case against the two foreigners at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam on three charges of conspiracy to commit an offence, money laundering and unlawfully operating a pyramid scheme.
Since the accused persons were at large, the prosecution applied and obtained an arrest warrant against them.
The arrest warrant was published four times in newspapers but they never appeared. The judge concluded, therefore, that the two foreigners were deemed to have been convicted of the offences.
During hearing of the application, the DPP, Mr Biswalo Mganga, was assisted by Principal State Attorneys Shadrack Kimario and Christopher Msigwa.
The prosecution had told the court that the grant of forfeiture order was necessary to prevent offenders from benefiting from proceeds of crimes.
According to the prosecution, it was sad to note that several people, including government officials and religious leaders, were involved in the pyramid scheme and invested some millions of shillings to enrich themselves but to the detriment of the country’s economy.
“You could imagine one religious leader took 100m/-offerings and sow such money in the pyramid scheme. We believe that if the forfeiture order will be granted, these government and religious leaders will stop engaging in these dirty games. It will deter others from committing crimes,” the DPP said.
It was submitted that on January 19, 2014, the two foreigners came in Tanzania and registered the IMS Marketing Tanzania Limited, a company which was given a business licence of operating a marketing services business by Kinondoni Municipal Council.
The prosecution submitted that neither the dealing in crypto currency nor collection of funds from members of the public is among the purposes of the business for which the company was registered for as per the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
On diverse dates, the two foreigners opened the said bank accounts after registering the company, which it was established later that it had a relationship with IMS International Marketing Services of Singapore.
The company, the prosecution further charged, has a close link and part to the operation of Onecoin Limited, a company founded in April 2014 in Gibraltar and has offices in Bulgaria, the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Hong Kong.
“The IMS Marketing Tanzania Limited, IMS International Marketing Services and Onecoin Limited are operating a pyramid scheme that is a predicate offence of money laundering,” one of the prosecutors submitted.
They told the court further that the operations of Onecoin Limited and subsidiary companies in various jurisdictions have been stopped and their bank accounts frozen for its complicity in money laundering offences arising from ponzi scheme that is the same as pyramid scheme.
Following such stoppage of operations, Onecoin Limited advertised on her facebook accounts and online website that members should pay their trade packages and deposits though the bank accounts maintained at BOA Bank.
On different dates, a total of 16,720,858,579/47 was received from three bank accounts.
Such amount comprises the total sum of 1,351,597.79 US dollars in two USD accounts and another 5,377,306.56 Euros in the Euro account.
