Lazarus Kandara, where are you?

THE man who may yet be able to provide the answers that High Court Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote has been looking for in his search for a N$30 million Social Security Commission investment that has gone missing, has still not been traced.

Lazarus Kandara emerged as a key figure in a High Court saga over a N$30 million investment that the SSC decided to entrust to a company that turned out to be run by Kandara, Avid Investment Corporation, as soon as the Companies Act enquiry over the investment deal got under way last week. In the course of the enquiry last week, Acting Judge Heathcote issued a subpoena for Kandara, too, to be summoned to court to give evidence.His precise whereabouts however still remain unknown, the instructing attorney on the SSC’s legal team in its case against Avid, Patrick Kauta, indicated to The Namibian yesterday.SSC lawyer Andrew Corbett, when asked by Acting Judge Heathcote about Kandara’s whereabouts on a couple of occasions last week, informed the court that the SSC team was still working on the matter.It appears now that attempts to trace him have not yet borne fruit.Kauta said efforts were still being made to trace Kandara, who is believed to be somewhere in South Africa, and possibly in Johannesburg.On claims that Kandara might be arrested, Kauta said that as far as the SSC team knew, no arrest had been made yet.According to evidence heard during the enquiry last week, the SSC transferred N$30 million to a bank account of Avid Investment Corporation on January 26.On January 28, Kandara instructed Avid’s bank to transfer N$29,5 million to an account of an asset management company, Namangol Investments.The document from Avid in which the bank was instructed to transfer the money, is purported to have been signed by Kandara, who was depicted as Avid’s Chief Executive Officer on the document.Most of Avid’s directors claimed last week not to have known that Kandara was their company’s CEO.In all Avid correspondence with the SSC in connection with the N$30 million investment, Kandara’s name did not appear.Instead, letters from Avid to the SSC of which copies have been provided to the court, were all signed by directors of the company, with Kandara’s presence nowhere to be discerned.The court also heard a claim last week that once the money had been transferred to Namangol Investments – whose CEO, Nico Josea, was arrested on Tuesday last week on a charge of fraud in connection with the SSC/Avid deal – Kandara asked Josea to again return N$3,2 million to him in cash.He further asked Josea to transfer N$20 million of the money to a supposed financial markets trader in Johannesburg, Alan Rosenberg, and to invest the remaining N$6,3 million, Josea told the court.Josea claimed to have given N$3,2 million back to Kandara as requested.Nico Josea remained in Police custody over the past weekend.He appeared on a charge of fraud, alternatively theft, in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, and was remanded in custody when his case was postponed to October 14 for further investigations.He has indicated that he will be applying formally to be released on bail in the meantime.His lawyer, Andries van Vuuren, said on enquiry yesterday that a bail application was still in the pipeline, but he could not at this stage indicate when it was expected to take place.In the course of the enquiry last week, Acting Judge Heathcote issued a subpoena for Kandara, too, to be summoned to court to give evidence.His precise whereabouts however still remain unknown, the instructing attorney on the SSC’s legal team in its case against Avid, Patrick Kauta, indicated to The Namibian yesterday.SSC lawyer Andrew Corbett, when asked by Acting Judge Heathcote about Kandara’s whereabouts on a couple of occasions last week, informed the court that the SSC team was still working on the matter.It appears now that attempts to trace him have not yet borne fruit.Kauta said efforts were still being made to trace Kandara, who is believed to be somewhere in South Africa, and possibly in Johannesburg.On claims that Kandara might be arrested, Kauta said that as far as the SSC team knew, no arrest had been made yet.According to evidence heard during the enquiry last week, the SSC transferred N$30 million to a bank account of Avid Investment Corporation on January 26.On January 28, Kandara instructed Avid’s bank to transfer N$29,5 million to an account of an asset management company, Namangol Investments.The document from Avid in which the bank was instructed to transfer the money, is purported to have been signed by Kandara, who was depicted as Avid’s Chief Executive Officer on the document.Most of Avid’s directors claimed last week not to have known that Kandara was their company’s CEO.In all Avid correspondence with the SSC in connection with the N$30 million investment, Kandara’s name did not appear.Instead, letters from Avid to the SSC of which copies have been provided to the court, were all signed by directors of the company, with Kandara’s presence nowhere to be discerned.The court also heard a claim last week that once the money had been transferred to Namangol Investments – whose CEO, Nico Josea, was arrested on Tuesday last week on a charge of fraud in connection with the SSC/Avid deal – Kandara asked Josea to again return N$3,2 million to him in cash.He further asked Josea to transfer N$20 million of the money to a supposed financial markets trader in Johannesburg, Alan Rosenberg, and to invest the remaining N$6,3 million, Josea told the court.Josea claimed to have given N$3,2 million back to Kandara as requested.Nico Josea remained in Police custody over the past weekend.He appeared on a charge of fraud, alternatively theft, in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, and was remanded in custody when his case was postponed to October 14 for further investigations.He has indicated that he will be applying formally to be released on bail in the meantime.His lawyer, Andries van Vuuren, said on enquiry yesterday that a bail application was still in the pipeline, but he could not at this stage indicate when it was expected to take place.