AN ATTEMPT by a self-styled foreign currency trader, Michael Amushelelo, to get the police to return cars, computers and other possessions seized from him when he was arrested on criminal charges last month, has failed in the Windhoek High Court.
In a ruling delivered on Friday, acting judge Eileen Rakow dismissed an urgent application by Amushelelo against the police, the prosecutor general, a Windhoek magistrate and the Bank of Namibia, and ordered that Amushelelo should pay the legal costs of the respondents in the case.
The judge indicated that the application was dismissed because it did not meet the requirements to be heard on an urgent basis.
Acting judge Rakow postponed the second part of the case that Amushelelo lodged in the High Court a week after his arrest to 19 November for a judicial case management hearing.
In the second part of Amushelelo’s application, he will be asking the court to review and set aside a Windhoek magistrate’s decision to issue two search and seizure warrants which the police used to search his house and office. He will also ask the court to declare the two warrants as invalid, and to set aside all steps taken on the basis of the warrants.
Amushelelo further wants to ask the court to set aside a decision by the Bank of Namibia and the director of the bank’s Financial Intelligence Centre to investigate him over alleged contraventions of the Banking Institutions Act, and to declare the bank’s investigation as unlawful and invalid.
The police seized computers, cellphones, business records, and six cars – a Range Rover, two Mercedes-Benzes, two BMWs and an Audi – from Amushelelo during their search of his home in Kleine Kuppe, Windhoek, and his office in the city.
Amushelelo (28) and his business partner Gregory Cloete (31) have been charged with offences under the Banking Institutions Act and the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
They were released on bail of N$35 000 each on 14 October, and have to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court again on 14 April next year.
In an affidavit filed at the High Court, a police officer involved in the investigation of the men’s case, warrant officer Daniel Lilata, is alleging that Amushelelo is misrepresenting himself to the public by promising them that he is using money received from the public to trade in foreign exchange markets. In fact, Amushelelo has been running an investment scam in which he has been using deposits received from people to pay earlier depositors whose investments have matured and were due to be paid back, Lilata is claiming.
According to Amushelelo, he is trading in foreign exchange on an internet platform through an agent in Cyprus, and is conducting business under the banner ‘Project One Million’.
He also says in an affidavit filed at the court: “I receive money from members of the public (as loans to me) in order to trade on the international currency market […] and after two months, they receive their money with a 50% interest on the principal amount.”
In a sworn statement by another police officer that was also filed at the court, it is stated that an analysis of bank records has shown that a total amount of more than N$17,5 million had been paid into a bank account of a close corporation of Amushelelo’s, Amushe Hello Investment, and that between August last year and July this year, a total amount of N$15,5 million had been transferred from that account to a personal bank account owned by Amushelelo.
About N$7 million was paid out of his personal bank account, accompanied by the reference description “project one million pay-out”, it is also said in the statement.
Amushelelo was represented by Sisa Namandje and Taimi Iileka when oral arguments on the urgent application were heard on 24 October. Marius Boonzaier and Neli Tjahikika represented the police, the prosecutor general and the magistrate who issued the warrants.
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