Chaponda under forensic probe
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) says it is conducting a forensic analysis of the property seized from former minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda in February this year.
In a written response to a questionnaire, ACB senior public relations officer Egrita Ndala said the property and cash were seized for investigation purposes.
She said: “The Anti-Corruption Bureau is conducting a forensic analysis of the equipment which was seized during the search and seizure in relation to the maize case. After the analysis, the bureau will review the information to determine whether it is relevant to the ongoing investigation.”
On February 21 this year, ACB officers raided offices and the residence of Chaponda in Lilongwe where they confiscated computers and K124 million cash and foreign currencies as follows: $57 500, 2 270 Indian rupee, 518 Ethiopian birr, 610 Botswana pula, 1 200 Mozambican metical, 1 250 Kenyan shilling, 80 Hong Kong dollar, 1 010 Japanese yen, 22 370 South African rand, 55 euro, 29 Zambian kwacha and 100 Namibian dollars.
The probe was in connection with Chaponda’s alleged involvement in the misprocurement of maize from Zambia as established by two commissions of inquiry, one appointed by President Peter Mutharika and another by Parliament.
The ACB’s explanation comes after lawyer Jai Banda, who was one of the key players in the drafting of the money laundering law, said in an interview that the graft-busting body needed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the money they confiscated from Chaponda was part of proceeds of crime.
Banda said that the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Financing Act only sheds more light on money confiscated when an individual is leaving or entering the country from overseas through a border post such as an airport and that such money shall not be held for a period of more than seven days.
He said: “My view is that if Chaponda declared where he got the money from, then he will be vindicated. If he declared that he earned the money from somewhere where he can show that he got it from such a source, that it came from a legal source, then it is okay.”
Banda also said that if Chaponda has a very good explanation, he should not hesitate but to come forward and explain where he sourced it from, and prove to ACB that it was not accumulated through any proceeds of crime.
According to the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime and Terrorist Financing Act Section 35 (1), a person commits the offence of money laundering if the person knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents any person’s proceeds of crime.
Further, the Act in Section 39 (1) reads: “An authorised officer may seize and detain currency or negotiable bearer instruments which is being imported into, or exported from, Malawi, in any form or manner if he or she has reasonable grounds for suspecting that it is derived from a serious crime or a money laundering offence of financing of terrorism, or intended by any person for use in the commission of a serious crime or a money laundering offence or an offence of financing terrorism.”
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Ndala said the law does not stipulate the period the bureau can keep property seized for investigation purposes.
She said: “However, sometimes the property can remain in the hands of the bureau until the case is concluded in court if the property is connected to the offence.”
Another lawyer corroborated the ACB’s position to hold on to the money and computers, saying the case at hand was not linked to the Money Laundering, Proceeds of Serious Crime, Terrorist Financing Act; hence, cannot be subjected to the stipulated period of holding on to the money.
Said the lawyer: “Money laundering mostly relates to taking in or out of the country money. But in the case of the former minister, the onus is on the ACB to establish whether the money was obtained legally.”
Chaponda’s declared assets show that he has 20 real estate properties scattered in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Luchenza Municipality, Thyolo, Mangochi and Chiradzulu.
Chaponda refused to comment on the developments, saying he is not talking to the media.
Sources have confided in The Nation that the bureau was yet to give a report on the development to the office of the Attorney General on the issue and that no charges have been levelled against the former minister.
The property is valued at K953 million, including earnings from various sources such as bank loans, the United Nations (UN), United Kingdom, South Africa, France and remittances from his children based overseas.
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Chaponda’s face looks like a face of a man who doesn’t know where he is, so bewildered and
on the edge of having a heart attack…………like a man who has been caught with his
pants down shagging somebody’s wife.
If there is a lesson that every one of us can learn from this Chaponda episode is that let
us all make sure that we are saving for our retirement.
If Mr Chaponda had made hay while the sun was shining in his life he would not have
been contributing to the high levels of unemployment in this country by
clinging to his ministerial position at this very old age. It clearly shows
that though we are told that he is a qualified lawyer obviously he did not get
any wisdom from his education.
There so many people in this DPP govt who really should be either at home enjoying life
from the proceeds of their labour or in a Nursing home waiting for that day
they gonna breathe their last.
But alas!! How many senile old men and women do we have running this govt? But yet we have
many energetic, well-educated but unemployed young men and women loaming our
streets everyday……what a shame.