Fresh directions in K20bn bank fraud case

The High Court of Malawi in Blantyre has issued fresh directions in the K20 billion bank fraud case involving some former directors of Cotton Ginners Africa Limited (CGAL).

This is a seven-year-old case where four local commercial banks were allegedly defrauded of at least K20.9 billion through loans obtained by Pakistani Abdul Rehman Abdulla, one of company’s directors.

Ministry of Justice public relations officer Frank Namangale in an interview yesterday confirmed that lawyers from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions appeared in the judge’s chambers on Wednesday where the fresh directions were issued.

He said: “A new judge assigned to the case, Anneline Kanthambi, who took over from Justice Sylvester Kalembera after his promotion to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal in June 2022, ordered that the court would proceed with the matter from where it stopped.”

But the accused lawyer Fostino Maele said yesterday he was not aware of the new directions because he did not appear before the judge.

The matter was adjourned in 2022 after the State concluded re-examination of its fourth witness and introduced its fifth witness Edward Mtulutsa, head of credit at Export Development Fund (EDF), a division of the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM).

However, the examination faced challenges as the State’s documents’ pages were not marked, proving it difficult for the court to be on the same page.

The development compelled the then presiding judge Kalembera to order an indefinite adjournment to allow the State to fix its documents.

The banks that were hit by this alleged fraud are Standard Bank plc, Ecobank Malawi, National Bank of Malawi plc and CDH Investment Bank.

Nine accused persons are answering charges ranging from fraud to forgery. Besides Abdulla, others are Mahomed Farook Ibrahim, Rizwana Abdul Rehman, Zarina Mahomed Faruk, Abdul Kader Patel, Mahomed Faizal Patel, Spencer Zinyemba, William Kumwenda and Wyson Tumba.