Court clears banker

 Banker Victoria Chanza is off the hook after the Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday acquitted her in a case where businessperson Zameer Karim is accused of fraudulently obtaining an K850 million loan.

In his short ruling on Wednesday, High Court of Malawi Judge Patrick Chirwa, sitting in his previous capacity as chief resident magistrate, said the Ecobank Malawi head of commercial banking was acquitted while her co-accused, Karim, had a case to answer.

He said a detailed ruling will be ready by next week.

In the case, Karim of Pioneer Investments was found with a case to answer on charges of intent to defraud Ecobank Malawi of K850 million by allegedly fraudulently obtaining a loan purportedly guaranteed by Malawi Police Service.

Reacting to the judgement, lawyer representing Chanza, Tamando Chokotho said: “I am happy that my client has been acquitted of all charges. There was no basis for the charges.”

Speaking to The Nation after being granted freedom, Chanza said she was glad to be cleared.

She said: “I knew I did nothing wrong, it was just a matter of time. I thank God. I thank my family and I thank my colleagues. I’m just overwhelmed with happiness. Above all, I thank God that He has vindicated me.”

Chanza was charged alongside Karim with three counts of forgery contrary to Section 358 of the Penal Code, uttering a false document contrary to Section 360 of the Penal Code and fraud other than false pretences contrary to Section 319 (A) of the Penal Code.

The two were arrested in November 2020 on accusations of presenting a Notice of Assignment of Proceeds purporting to have been signed by Malawi Police director of finance and his deputy, undertaking to directly pay Ecobank K850 million as proceeds of a contract between police and Karim’s Oil and Protein Company Limited.