The Financial Intelligence Centre recently reported mass money laundering racket across Zambia. This released report made heads turn due to the involvement of top lawyers, legal counsellors and even ministers across Zambia. The amount reported to have been involved in this bust is more than USD 1.5 billion, which is staggering. Also, sources have contemplated that the main reason behind this group being able to hide for so long was the involvement of corrupt political and government officers, that made it happen. The FIC has also released a list of names of lawyers involved in this money laundering heist.
The FIC strengthened its investigation after recording around 35,700 suspicious and unauthorized cash transactions from the corporate as well as individual bank accounts of the lawyers. The FIC also reported that more than 50 percent of the companies investigated after getting government contracts were found to be void of any tax registration. At the same time, many of these companies belonged to individuals who used surrogates for conducting businesses without exposing themselves. Most of these individuals belonged to the politically exposed group, which means most of them were ministers
Politically exposed individuals are those who are entrusted with prominent public functions. Some of the names that came up during the investigation were of Minister Chitotela, Minister of Mines Christopher Yaluma. The account of Yaluma was extremely active during his stint as Energy Minister. The FIC also found that many of these accused received bank transfers from international banks in Dubai and China. This made it furthermore difficult to establish the link, but the FIC was sure enough that these accounts were not legal. Some of the top names included in the list were Masozi M Banda working with Avik International and Sakibwa Sikota. Sikota is more infamous for his alleged partnership with the Ventriglias, notorious for unethical practices like illegally taking over Zambezi Portland Cement which legally belongs to Dr. Rajan Mahtani.
The FIC will be shared further information soon.