Organised Crime Law Strikes Again

Werner Menges

4 April 2011

THE Prevention of Organised Crime Act was harnessed last week to freeze a bank account and other assets claimed to be connected to a fraud scheme in which close to N$800 000 was embezzled from the Ministry of Defence.

A company with the name E Red Electrical and Electrical Services is at the centre of the alleged scam in which cheques meant for electricity distributor Erongo RED were paid into the company’s bank account.

Cheques totalling N$828 527,72 – all of them meant for Erongo RED – were paid into the bank account of E Red Services, the High Court was informed in the case in which the Prosecutor General asked the court to issue an assets preservation order in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act of 2004. Government cheques totalling N$798 527,72 make up the bulk of the money deposited in the account.

The order was granted by Judge Dave Smuts on Thursday afternoon. In terms of the order, a bank account in the name of E Red Services has been frozen, while two cars allegedly bought with money that came from the account have been seized by the Namibian Police.

This is only the third time that the Prevention of Organised Crime Act has been used to freeze and seize assets alleged to be the proceeds of crime.

The N$828 527,72 that was paid into the E Red Services bank account “are proceeds of unlawful activities and the positive balance in the account represents the proceeds of fraud, corruption, forgery and uttering,” Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa is charging in an affidavit filed with the court in support of the application under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

The bank account involved still holds some N$495 500.

Two Government cheques, totalling N$798 527,72, were paid into the bank account.

Both cheques were supposed to be payments for Erongo RED, for services delivered to the Ministry of Defence, it is alleged in documents filed with the court.

Another two cheques of the company Namibia Stone Processing – these total N$30 000 – were also paid into the account. These cheques, too, were actually meant to be paid to Erongo Red.

“E Red Services was tactically named and registered to create the illusion that it is Erongo RED or alternatively that it is connected to Erongo RED,” Imalwa is charging in her affidavit.

Imalwa and Anti-Corruption Commission investigator Franco Esterhuizen told the court in affidavits that an ACC investigation showed that two false invoices in the name of Erongo Red were submitted to the Ministry of Defence in August and September last year.

An official in the ministry, Sam Natangwe Shingenge, verified the false invoices, marked them as correct and received two cheques that were made out to Erongo RED, it is claimed.

The cheques were later paid into the account of E Red Services, which had been registered by one Tobias Shaanika in June last year.

Two cash cheques from E Red Services, totalling N$60 000, were later used to pay for a Golf GTI vehicle that was bought in the name of Shingenge, it is alleged.

That car is one of the vehicles now seized by the Police.

A cash cheque of N$45 000 from E Red Services was also deposited into the account of one Frans Johannes. Johannes used most of this money to buy a Nissan Skyline vehicle for N$39 000 in September last year, it is also claimed. This car, too, has been seized by the Police.

The court was further informed that Shingenge, Shaanika, and two other people who received money from the E Red Services account – A.K. Hekandjo, who received N$70 000, and M.P.J. Vahongaifa, who received N$45 000 – have in the meantime been arrested and charged with corruption. They have been released on bail and are scheduled to appear in court again on April 26.

Following the preservation order granted with respect to the bank account and two cars, the Prosecutor General now has 120 days within which she can apply to the court to have those assets forfeited to the State.

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