TZW
This was revealed by Senior State Attorney, Mutalemwa Kishenyi, for the prosecution, at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam yesterday when the case came up for mention.
“Very soon and in fact in a few days to come, your honour, investigations into the matter will be completed,” the trial attorney told Principal Resident Magistrate Huruma Shaidi. Under such circumstances, the prosecutor asked the court to adjourn the matter to another mention date.
The magistrate granted the prosecution’s request and postponed the trial to May 11. But before such adjournment, Solomon, the Bank’s ex- Chief Legal Counsel rose up, expressing his dissatisfaction with the way the prosecution was handling the matter. He argued that they have been in remand for over two years and no progress has so far been made as far as investigations are concerned.
He therefore invited the court to exercise its powers under section 225 of the Criminal Procedure Act to set them free, hopping that even if they would be re-arrested it would be a wake up call for the prosecution to come up with the next stage of preliminary hearing session.
The magistrate, however, quickly reacted to the concerns by the accused, admitting that indeed they have been in remand for too long and thus, called on the prosecution to do something to expedite the process.
Apart from money laundering allegedly committed between March 13 and September 2015 year within the city, Kitilya, Sinare and Solomon are also charged with conspiracy to commit an offence, forgery, uttering false documents and obtaining six million US dollars (about 12bn/-) by false pretence.
The prosecution alleges that on diverse dates between August2012 and March 2013, within the city of Dar es Salaam, the accused persons conspired with other people who are not in court to commit the offence of obtaining money by false pretence from the government.
It is alleged that on November 5, 2012, at Stanbic Bank in the city, all the three accused persons, with intent to deceit, made a false collaboration agreement purporting to show that the bank has established a consortium to collaborate with Enterprise Growth Market Advisers (EGMA) Limited.
The purpose, according to the prosecution, was to arrange for financing in the amount of 550 million US dollars to the government of Tanzania under which EGMA would arrange for negotiation and meeting involving the financing facilitation understanding on the technicalities of the financing to the government.
It is claimed further that the EGMA was also to arrange for review of finance documents and facilitate the provision of relevant documents or approval that would be required by relevant Tanzanian authorities, a fact which the accused persons knew to be false.
According to the prosecution, in March 2013 in the city, Kitilya, Sinare and Solomon, with intent to defraud, jointly and together obtained from the government six million US dollars (about 12bn/-) by falsely pretending that the money was a facilitation fee payable to EGMA Limited.
Such amount, it is alleged, was to facilitate together with Stanbic Bank Tanzania a loan to the government of the United Republic of Tanzania in the amount of 600 million US dollars.
The accused persons are alleged to have directly engaged themselves in transaction involving six million US dollars by transferring, withdrawing and depositing money relating to that transaction in different bank accounts maintained by EGMA Limited at Stanbic Bank Tanzania Limited and KCB Bank Limited.
It is alleged further that the accused persons ought to have known that the said money was the proceeds of a predicate offence, which is forgery.