Third suspect charged in multi-million dollar scam

A THIRD suspect headed to Windhoek Central Prison on Friday after making a first court appearance in connection with allegations of massive fraud, bribery and corruption around a contract for the provision of security scanning equipment to Namibia’s customs authorities.

A day after Public Service Commission member, Teckla Lameck, and a Chinese national, Yang Fan, had appeared in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on six charges of corruption, fraud and bribery, Lameck’s business partner, Jerobeam Kongo Mokaxwa, went the same way on Friday.The 30-year-old Mokaxwa, sharply-dressed in a three-piece suit, appeared before Magistrate Jermaine Muchali on the same charges on which Lameck (49) and Yang (39) had been in the dock the day before.These are counts of fraud and bribery and four charges under the Anti-Corruption Act, including charges of corruptly accepting gratification by an agent, corruptly giving gratification to an agent, and failing to report corrupt transactions.With Lameck and Yang having already been informed that they would be remaining in custody at Windhoek Central Prison while their case was being postponed to July 22, Mokaxwa was told the same with his court appearance.A formal bail application is set to be heard when the case returns to court on July 22, Public Prosecutor Carol-Ann Esterhuizen told the Magistrate. All three of the charged suspects are set to be held at Windhoek Central Prison in the meantime.Yang is a representative of a Chinese manufacturer of X-ray scanning equipment, Nuctech Company, which in May last year clinched a contract with the Ministry of Finance to supply security scanning devices to the Directorate of Customs and Excise. It is claimed that the equipment was to be supplied at a total cost of some US$55,3 million (about N$449 million at the current exchange rate), with the Ministry of Finance supposed to be responsible for paying about US$12,828 million (about N$104 million currently) of this total. The rest of the payment was supposed to be made by the Chinese government as part of a soft loan agreement with its Namibian counterpart.The Finance Ministry paid the US$12,828 million to Nuctech at the end of February this year, it is claimed. By mid-March, Nuctech had in turn paid about N$42 million into a bank account of Teko Trading CC, which is a close corporation in which Lameck and Mokaxwa are equal partners.Earlier in February Teko Trading and Nuctech had allegedly signed an agreement in terms of which Teko Trading was going to provide ‘consulting services’ to the Chinese company.Most of the N$42 million that was paid into the Teko Trading account had again been transferred to other accounts – with Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang allegedly the main beneficiaries – within days after the money had landed in the close corporation’s account.Lameck is claimed to have received about N$9,39 million, while N$8 million was allegedly transferred to Mokaxwa’s account and Yang is claimed to have received about N$16,8 million.A range of assets was allegedly bought and investments made in the wake of the alleged transfers into the three charged suspects’ accounts, it is claimed.These assets included vehicles and farming equipment allegedly bought by Lameck’s husband, businessman and TransNamib Board Chairman Festus Lameck, a farm that Lameck and her husband allegedly bought, vehicles, a farm and a house in Windhoek’s Ludwigsdorf area that were allegedly bought by Mokaxwa, and various investments of money claimed to have been made by Yang.All of these assets are the subject of a restraint order in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act that the Prosecutor General obtained in the High Court on Monday last week.In terms of that order, none of these assets may be dealt with for as long as the order, which is now in effect until July 24, remains in force.* The Namibian erroneously referred to Lameck as a former Public Service Commissioner last week. In fact, she is still a member of the Public Service Commission, it was established on Friday.