Amushelelo’s ‘victims’ to get money through court

…PG says forex trader prosecution has nothing to do with his activism

Prosecutor general Martha Imalwa says people who lost money in Michael Amushelelo’s Project One Million investment scheme will only get their money back if they can prove they did not participate in the crimes.

Amushelelo yesterday said his Project One Million had about 1 000 clients who have become victims of a politically driven war between himself and “the corrupt government”.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Imalwa said the investors should approach the court with evidence of their investments.

She said N$13,2 million found in Amushelelo’s bank accounts will not be used by the state until applications for the exclusion of interests are launched by those who lost their money.

Imalwa noted that Amushelelo’s assets forfeited by the state, such as his seven luxury vehicles, will be auctioned off by an official appointed by court.

“In terms of the law, if a person has interests, all the proceedings were actually published in the newspapers, calling on those who have interest to give notice. Some gave their notices to ask the court to exclude their interests in the properties to be forfeited.”

Imalwa said the application for exclusion had not been dealt with in last week’s High Court judgement.

“It will still come and then it will depend on our arguments. It all depends whether the person also knew and participated in the crime. If you participated you can’t benefit, but if you were an innocent person then the evidence will be there, you have already put your case before court. So, we are still going to deal with the exclusion of interest,” she said.

Amushelelo failed to answer ‘damning allegations’ – judge

The notices for exclusion are submitted in line with section 52 (3) of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

Amushelelo’s forfeited assets will remain untouched or go into the asset recovery fund until the applications for exclusion of interest is dealt with.

Amushelelo was running Project One Million between 2018 and 2019.

Members of the public allegedly paid close to N$87 million, the Windhoek High Court found last Friday.

Seven flashy cars suspected to have been bought with some of the money from the scheme were declared forfeited by the state.

“Amushelelo was running a pyramid scheme. Some people would invest. The money which he got is what he paid other people and some new people could come in. What we found in the accounts is not all the money. You have seen in my application that more than N$60 million was already to be paid to those he needed to pay.

“When you invest first, you benefit, but in the process people had to lose because some of the money he used to buy his own things, including motor vehicles. Now, there are people whose money may not be there and we have to see when we go and argue our application for that exclusion. We have to deal with the issue of who has lost what, who has benefited, how much money is there, who will be paid, how much will be paid? That will come out,” she said.

Imalwa urged Namibians to do research before investing money in schemes.
She said crime does not pay.

“Don’t think that you are joining crime to pay you. The law enforcement agencies will follow you.”

She urged Namibians to be honest and not get involved in criminal activities.

She denied that the state is prosecuting Amushelelo because of his radical political activism.

“We don’t persecute people. We only prosecute people who are involved in criminal activities. For all those years I’ve been the prosecutor general, no one can say ‘I was convicted because Imalwa was applying political intentions for whatever’,” she said.

She said she proves her cases based on evidence.

Imalwa added that if there was no evidence, she would not have prosecuted Amushelelo.

“The evidence is there,” she said.

Meanwhile, Amushelelo said he intends to repay his clients through forex trading.

“Yes, we receive several threats, in fact some of our clients have taken us to court,” he said.

Amushelelo further said he plans to appeal the judgment.

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