 |
| Paul Mphwiyo exit courtroom with wife |
Lilongwe High Court found guilty and convicted Stanley Mtambo, on cashgate money laundering charge totalling K78 million in 2013 after taking a guilty plea yesterday.
However, Paul Mphwiyo and 15 other co-accused persons pleaded not guilty to their cashgate charges of money laundering and theft by public servant amounting to K2.4 billion.
A total of 19 individuals who includes former budget director Paul Mphwiyo and Mtambo were charged on separate cashgate charges ranging from laundering of Government money and theft by public servant amounting to K2.4 billion in 2013.
During High Court appearance held at Lilongwe City Assembly Chamber, only 17 accused persons including Mphwiyo appeared at the court without the two other accused persons, Lumimba Karim and Sympathy Chisale, expected also to take their plea.
 |
| Stanley Mtambo hiding face with newspaper |
Following the conviction, Stanley Mtambo’s has been sent to prison pending sentencing which will come after the conclusion of the case.
Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Mary Kachale asked presiding judge, Justice Esme Chombo, to pend sentence of Mtambo until the court decides the sentence of the remaining accused persons so that he can enjoy the rules of sentence reduction.
According to Kachale, Mtambo has been instrumental in providing the law enforcement with evidence which incriminate Leonard Kalonga, a former deputy Chief Tourism Officer in the ministry of Tourism who recruited 17 companies that were used to defraud government money through creation of fraudulent contracts at the ministry of tourism and pay these companies huge sums of money without rendering any service to government.
His Lawyer concurred with the state plea adding “sentence be pended until such appropriate time when a fair sentence is given to my client.”
Mtambo pleaded guilty for the offence of defrauding Government money amounting to K78 million in 2013 through Walusako General Dealers belonging to his wife. Mtambo rented out the Walusako company certificate to Kalonga and later received the said amount but he claims that he got 10 percent after he had handed over the whole money to Kalonga.
The convict expressed his readiness to start prison just after the DPP had reminded court to revoke bail following the conviction so the court begins counting prison days. Mtambo lawyer agreed saying; “My client prefers that he goes today.” Adding that Mtambo has proved his readiness to go to prison by his determination to plead guilty in the day
Money laundering attracts prison sentence of 10 years while lending out company certificate attracts prison sentence of 3 years.
Meanwhile, the court has risen to January 9, 2017.
But before adjournment, council Gilbert Khonyongwa, lawyer for the 12th accused person, Andrew Chikaiko and 14th accused person, Fatch Chilungamo made an application for reduction for the number of days his clients require to report to police as bail condition.
“They report twice a week since 2015.” Gonyongwa said during oral submission, and noted that this is affecting his clients financial position
He continued to bring to the attention of court that “Most of the accused persons report once” And therefore prayed that “In view of inconsistencies, it is our prayer that we report once a month.”
He also added that “accused person number 17 [Cecilia Mng’ambi] would like to benefit on this.”
In his ruling, Justice Esme Chombo asked Khonyongwa to make separate applications.
Before this application, lawyer Andy Kaonga representing the 5th accused person, Roosevelt Ndovie applied that “the fifth accused person prays my lady that he be provided with a list and all images of cheques he signed between 1st April, 2013 to 30th September, 2013.”
Similar application followed by council Titus Mvalo representing 1st accused person Paul Mphwiyo and the 2nd accused person. He asked the DPP to furnish them with documents on Treasury Funding Books in respect of period of the commission of alleged offence.
He further requested for IFMIS [Integrated Financial Management Information System] Funding Record, IFMIS Uploading records and the minutes of meeting held at the Reserve Bank of Malawi on 9th September 2013 attended by the 1st accused person with his team from Treasury and the Reserve Bank team.
There was also consensus that since the charge sheets of the accused persons only mentions “Government Account” state should amend them by indicating specific Government account which state claim the accused persons stole from.
The court also advised the lawyers to inform state on the specific documents they want to be furnished with so that by January 9, 2017 when the case comes back in court there should be progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment