Malawi moves on stolen k375m

Malawi Government has opted to take legal action against a United States of America-based agent who caused Ministry of Health to lose K375 million meant for emergency Covid-19 response.

The ministry lost the funds at the hands of its agent, DT Global, who operated the Malawi Health Services Joint Fund (HSJF). The funds were contributed by donors.

Responding to a May 29 2023 demand letter from Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda to reimburse the money, DT Global said it was planning to make good the loss through its insurer.

The agent, through its general counsel Merelyn Aked, also committed to take measures to ensure that the ministry’s account, which its foreign donors froze, is unfrozen. 

In a written response to a questionnaire yesterday, Nyirenda confirmed turning down proposals DT Global made, saying they were not satisfactory, as such, opted to start legal proceedings.

 “I can confirm DT Global wrote me a letter which I received on July 2 2023, but already responded to them same day I received it, and advised them their response to my demand letter was unsatisfactory and I am proceeding to commence a legal action,” he said.

Aked was yet to respond to our questionnaire by press time.

But in their letter to the AG, DT Global said they preferred to work with the Ministry of Health and the development partners that fund HSJF, to resolve the current situation.

Reads the letter in part: “We understand that the refund of the stolen money will be a critical element to ensure the HSJF donor funds are unfrozen and DT Global will work swiftly with all relevant stakeholders to ensure compliance with the other demands that have been set by the development partners to unfreeze the funds.

“Our investigation has determined that this fraud originated, and was enabled, by the hacking of an e-mail account of another supplier to the Ministry of Health. Once the hackers had access to the supplier’s e-mail, they obtained information enabling them to conduct an authorised push payment scam targeted at the Ministry of Health and DT Global.”

The agency said it did not knowingly participate in any actions intended to result in loss to the Ministry of Health.

DT Global further said it has filed an insurance claim and anticipated the claim process to be finalised by the end of July 2023.

The agent said it was ready to refund the ministry 327 000 euros (about K375million), as demanded by the development partners.

The fraudsters are alleged to have hacked e-mails of some officials running the fund and DT Global International Development USA Ltd, ended up authorising payment of 327 000 euros to a newly opened account.

The authorised push payment fraud is where fraudsters trick their victims into willingly making large bank transfers to them.

HSJF operates a bank account with First Capital Bank in Malawi, the documents showed.

DT Global, the fiscal agent, was contracted to provide financial, fiduciary and procurement oversight services while Management4Health, a Germany based firm, was hired to provide technical support on infrastructure, procurement and programme management.

Since July 2019, the team of Management4Health, among others, has supported the Ministry of Health in developing an Emergency Response to prevent the spread ofCovid-19 by preparing for rapid procurement of supplies through Unicef.

The programme mobilises Covid-19 supplies, equipment and pre-position them, equipping the infectious disease treatment centres and quarantine units, and strengthening laboratory capacities to detect Covid-19.

The role of DT Global included managing the project’s finances and management of bank accounts.

The documents show that Susanne Manns, a German, is the director of operations forManagement4Health and her official e-mail was allegedly hacked by fraudsters who interfered with a chain of e-mail communications between herself and a Mr.Eudosia Andoh.

Andoh is a Ghanaian who serves as team leader for DT Global.

The fraudsters, the documents show, provided Andoh with instructions and new banking details for the Management4Health to use the said banking details when processing fresh payments.

The original bank details were for Frankfurter Sparkasse, a bank domiciled in Germany where the Management4Health is based while the new bank details were in respect of TSB Bank, a bank domiciled in London.

The fraudsters succeeded and the funds, according to the documents, ended in a wrong account.

Germany, United Kingdom and Norway contributed resources to the fund and the suspension of the account led to suffocation of some operations.

The development partners stopped all payments from HSJF pending information on how the stolen funds would be refunded, the documents show.