Fourteen people accused of involvement in an international investment scam that was operated from Namibia are being held in custody after appearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
The 14 accused – including 10 Chinese nationals – appeared before magistrate Dawid Mukuyu on a total of 203 charges on Friday afternoon.
Their case was postponed to 15 February 2024 for further investigations to be carried out. On a request from public prosecutor Bernadine Bertolini, the magistrate ordered that the 14 accused should be held in custody in the meantime.
The accused who appeared before Mukuyu are Chinese nationals Fan Jia (42), Guo Linzie (41), Zheng Haifeng (40), Li Zirian (36), Shi Zi Jun (33), Lin Shu Lin (35), Chen Wuyu (30), Neng Jun Wu (30), Wu Weiyang (22) and Chen You Yi (40), Namibian citizens Tango Muulyau (34), Mdanda Mamelodi Domingo (30), Toivo Herman (40), and Carlos Alejandro Batista Valdes (34).
The Namibian Police’s deputy inspector general for operations, Elias Mutota, said during a media briefing on Friday that the police last week arrested a syndicate of Chinese nationals and Namibians accused of defrauding Americans and Europeans through an alleged international investment scam.
The police raided six houses in the Auasblick, Kleine Kuppe and Klein Windhoek areas of Windhoek and offices in the Shapumba Towers building in the city on Tuesday evening last week as part of a sting operation.
Mutota said at least 50 of a group of young Namibians who were also involved in the alleged scam have agreed to cooperate with the police in a human trafficking investigation.
“Young Namibian males and females, mostly students, were recruited by the suspected foreign nationals and trained to create false profiles on Facebook and Instagram so as to lure unsuspecting United States of America citizens into a scheme that started with building trust with the victims and ultimately introducing them to cryptocurrency investments which will show quick profits and gains, enticing them to invest more,” Mutota said.
Also at the media briefing on Friday, Namibian Police Forensic Science Institute head Nelius Becker said the investment scam in which the arrested suspects are alleged to have been involved is known as a “pig butchering” cryptocurrency scheme – a reference to the fattening of a pig before it is slaughtered.
According to the United States Department of Justice, fraudsters running these schemes cultivate long-term online relationships with victims, eventually enticing them to make investments on fraudulent cryptocurrency trading platforms.
In reality, funds sent by victims for purported investments are instead funnelled to cryptocurrency addresses and accounts controlled by scammers and their co-conspirators.
The charges on which the 14 accused appeared in court include 98 counts of trafficking in persons, 98 charges of using the services of victims of trafficking, one count of fraud involving an amount of US$465 405 (about N$9 million) and charges of money laundering, racketeering and failing to pay tax.
During the court appearance, Bertolini said more than 200 victims affected by the alleged offences have been identified, and the investigation of the matter is still in its early stages.
Defence lawyers Gilroy Kasper and Roberto Avila told the magistrate according to their clients they were arrested on Tuesday evening last week, with the result that they did not appear in court within 48 hours after the arrests and that their detention after 48 hours had passed was unlawful.
Bertolini, however, said a police operation took place during the evening of Tuesday, and the arrests were carried out on Wednesday.
Mukuyu remarked that if the accused were detained on Tuesday, it could be said they were being held by the police for questioning, until they were arrested on Wednesday.
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