Corruption accused battle for bail

TSUMEB-BASED businessman Karel (‘Kallie’) Grunschloss, who has spent the past two weeks in custody after being arrested on corruption charges, says he fears for the survival of his businesses and the employment of about 300 people unless he is granted bail.

In a written statement that the leader of his team of defence lawyers, senior counsel Raymond Heathcote, read out in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday, Grunschloss expresses worry about the fate of his businesses if he had to remain in custody for an extended period.

Grunschloss says in his statement he has businesses that are active all over Namibia, including in the transport of copper ore and the import and distribution of sugar in Namibia.

He says he works seven days a week and travels thousands of kilometres around Namibia every month to run his businesses.

It is simply impossible for the companies in his business group, in which about 300 people are directly employed, to be run successfully in his absence, he argues in his statement. He also says his businesses would most certainly suffer irreparable damages in his absence and his companies would be in jeopardy without his hands-on involvement.

Considering those facts, it would be in the public interest to release him on bail, he is arguing.

Grunschloss has chosen not to testify in person in support of his request to be granted bail. Through that choice, he has sidestepped the risk of having to field questions from the prosecution on the charges he is facing after his arrest by the Anti-Corruption Commission on 10 April.

The only reference that he makes to the charges in his statement is an indication that he would be pleading not guilty to all charges. Grunschloss also says he would stand his trial as required, would comply with bail conditions, would not interfere with the investigation of his case – although the ACC’s head of investigations, Nelius Becker, is charging that he has already interfered after his arrest – and is willing to pay N$1 million to be released on bail.

Grunschloss and a Ministry of Finance tax investigator, Eustace Mujohn Mujohn, are charged with three counts in terms of the Anti-Corruption Act.

They are accused of having conspired to commit offences under the Anti-Corruption Act, corruptly using a public office or position to obtain gratification, and using a false document with an intention to mislead people.

ACC investigations chief Becker testified during the bail hearing yesterday that additional charges would definitely be added to the three counts as a result of evidence uncovered by ACC investigators over the past two weeks.

The existing three charges are based on allegations that Grunschloss approached a Walvis Bay businessman during February and March with a claim that he had a senior contact in the Ministry of Finance’s division responsible for tax audits and that he could help the businessman obtain favourable tax audit reports for his business in return for a payment of N$1 million.

The coastal businessman approached the ACC as a whistle-blower, and more than a dozen conversations in which he and Grunschloss subsequently discussed Grunschloss’ proposal were thereafter recorded, Becker has told the court.

Grunschloss was arrested at a restaurant in Windhoek after he and the Walvis Bay businessman had a meeting during which Grunschloss showed him the supposed audit report that he could obtain for N$1 million.

By the time they had that meeting, Grunschloss had already emailed to the whistle-blower a false invoice from one of his businesses, Logistix International, which was supposed to serve as a cover for the payment of N$1 million that he was allegedly soliciting.

Becker has testified that the ACC gathered evidence from messages and names found on a second cellphone that Grunschloss had in his possession at the time of his arrest, as well as documents found in his car and a second cellphone that belonged to Mujohn.

He said the evidence collected so far led to a conclusion that Mujohn was feeding Grunschloss with confidential information on tax audits carried out by the Ministry of Finance, which Grunschloss then used to try to extract payments from people.

Following the arrest of Grunschloss and Mujohn, two people – the one is also a Walvis Bay-based businessman, and the other is the owner of a hunting farm in the Outjo district – have told the ACC that they, too, had been approached by Grunschloss with an offer that he could help them get favourable tax audit reports from the Ministry of Finance in return for substantial payments of money, Becker said.

One of the people contacted the deputy director of the ACC to report Grunschloss’ approach to him, during which a payment of N$1 million was allegedly also solicited, while the other has admitted that he paid a substantial amount of money in cash to Grunschloss, the court heard.

The bail hearing is continuing today.