Avid kickbacks grab limelight

A HUSH-HUSH handover of money that is claimed to have taken place between the wife of Avid Investment CEO Lazarus Kandara and former directors or role players in Avid returned to centre stage in the High Court yesterday.

The question that remained the topic of disagreement as the inquiry adjourned for the day was: Did Paulus Kapia, Ralph Blaauw, Otniel Podewiltz and Mathias Shiweda receive Social Security Commission money when batches of N$40 000 in cash were allegedly handed over to each of them by the late Kandara’s wife, Christophine Kandara, on a Saturday earlier this year? The handover took place after Avid had bagged a N$30-million investment from the SSC. KEY QUESTIONS Mrs Kandara told Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote four weeks ago that she carried out her husband’s instructions to hand over N$40 000 each to Podewiltz and Shiweda personally, while she handed the same amount to Blaauw, who was supposed to also hand a further N$40 000 to Kapia.The cash was handed to them after Nico Josea, a business associate of her husband whose company, Namangol Investments, served as a link between Avid and a South African financial trader who was supposed to further invest the SSC’s money, delivered the cash to her house one Saturday morning, Mrs Kandara told the court.Kandara confirmed his wife’s testimony before his claimed suicide a fortnight ago.However he added an explanation that could prove crucial for the recipients of the cash, who might be desperate to dispel suspicions that they might have shared in kickbacks allegedly distributed as part of the SSC-Avid investment deal.Kandara claimed that the money given to Kapia, who was at that stage still a director of Avid; to Podewiltz, who was a former director of the company at that time; to Shiweda, who was a shareholder; and to Blaauw, whose wife was a director of Avid, did not originate from the SSC investment deal, but was part of the proceeds that Avid realised on an earlier investment of N$10 million that it had done for the Navachab gold mine.JOSEA IN TWO MINDS? At one stage yesterday, Josea appeared to be either on the verge or in the process of scuttling that claim by his erstwhile business partner.In response to questions from Acting Judge Heathcote, he repeated that Kandara had phoned him to ask him to withdraw N$250 000 from his bank account and to take that to Mrs Kandara.He was also told by Kandara that after dropping off the money he had to drive away, because people would be coming to collect the cash, Josea said.He withdrew the money on January 31, Josea also confirmed.On another question from the Acting Judge, who asked him whose money it had been, Josea answered that it had been part of the N$29,5 million that Kandara had transferred to Namangol Investments.That N$29,5 million was the bulk of the N$30 million that the SSC handed over to Avid to be invested.Bank records might not agree with Josea’s version, however.Namangol Investments’ bank account records show that the withdrawal of N$250 000 on January 31 took place from a Namangol Investments cheque or current account.The records also show that the N$29,5 million that was transferred from an Avid bank account to Namangol Investments on January 28, did not go into the cheque account that the N$250 000 later came from, but went into another account.REGRETS Josea has previously told the court that he did not know that the N$29,5 million had been part of an investment that Avid was supposed to do for the SSC.Yesterday he again repeated this.”If I knew that it was SSC money, I would never have touched it,” he said.”I regret today that I’ve done what he asked me.”In his cross-examination of Josea, Kapia’s legal representative Sisa Namandje pressed that the N$250 000 allegedly used to pay “commissions” to Avid directors was not part of the SSC funds.Namandje drew the court’s attention to Namangol’s current account, which reflected a balance of N$1,16 million on January 4.By the time Josea withdrew the N$250 000 to hand to Mrs Kandara from this account, there had been no other deposits into the account.Josea did not expressly agree with Namandje that the money he allegedly gave to Mrs Kandara was not SSC funds.He had money in the bank, and it was from those funds that he had withdrawn the quarter of a million dollars, he told the lawyer.Namandje then went over testimony given by Mrs Kandara that she and Josea had counted the money on the day he delivered it to her.Josea, however, again denied that they had counted the money.He maintained that Mrs Kandara only signed for the money on the bonnet of a car in her garage before he handed over the money and left.Josea also later acknowledged that the paper Mrs Kandara signed was in fact not for the N$250 000 but another one detailing other transactions between Josea and Lazarus Kandara.KEY QUESTIONS Mrs Kandara told Acting Judge Raymond Heathcote four weeks ago that she carried out her husband’s instructions to hand over N$40 000 each to Podewiltz and Shiweda personally, while she handed the same amount to Blaauw, who was supposed to also hand a further N$40 000 to Kapia.The cash was handed to them after Nico Josea, a business associate of her husband whose company, Namangol Investments, served as a link between Avid and a South African financial trader who was supposed to further invest the SSC’s money, delivered the cash to her house one Saturday morning, Mrs Kandara told the court. Kandara confirmed his wife’s testimony before his claimed suicide a fortnight ago.However he added an explanation that could prove crucial for the recipients of the cash, who might be desperate to dispel suspicions that they might have shared in kickbacks allegedly distributed as part of the SSC-Avid investment deal.Kandara claimed that the money given to Kapia, who was at that stage still a director of Avid; to Podewiltz, who was a former director of the company at that time; to Shiweda, who was a shareholder; and to Blaauw, whose wife was a director of Avid, did not originate from the SSC investment deal, but was part of the proceeds that Avid realised on an earlier investment of N$10 million that it had done for the Navachab gold mine. JOSEA IN TWO MINDS? At one stage yesterday, Josea appeared to be either on the verge or in the process of scuttling that claim by his erstwhile business partner.In response to questions from Acting Judge Heathcote, he repeated that Kandara had phoned him to ask him to withdraw N$250 000 from his bank account and to take that to Mrs Kandara.He was also told by Kandara that after dropping off the money he had to drive away, because people would be coming to collect the cash, Josea said.He withdrew the money on January 31, Josea also confirmed.On another question from the Acting Judge, who asked him whose money it had been, Josea answered that it had been part of the N$29,5 million that Kandara had transferred to Namangol Investments.That N$29,5 million was the bulk of the N$30 million that the SSC handed over to Avid to be invested.Bank records might not agree with Josea’s version, however.Namangol Investments’ bank account records show that the withdrawal of N$250 000 on January 31 took place from a Namangol Investments cheque or current account.The records also show that the N$29,5 million that was transferred from an Avid bank account to Namangol Investments on January 28, did not go into the cheque account that the N$250 000 later came from, but went into another account.REGRETS Josea has previously told the court that he did not know that the N$29,5 million had been part of an investment that Avid was supposed to do for the SSC.Yesterday he again repeated this.”If I knew that it was SSC money, I would never have touched it,” he said.”I regret today that I’ve done what he asked me.”In his cross-examination of Josea, Kapia’s legal representative Sisa Namandje pressed that the N$250 000 allegedly used to pay “commissions” to Avid directors was not part of the SSC funds.Namandje drew the court’s attention to Namangol’s current account, which reflected a balance of N$1,16 million on January 4.By the time Josea withdrew the N$2
50 000 to hand to Mrs Kandara from this account, there had been no other deposits into the account.Josea did not expressly agree with Namandje that the money he allegedly gave to Mrs Kandara was not SSC funds.He had money in the bank, and it was from those funds that he had withdrawn the quarter of a million dollars, he told the lawyer.Namandje then went over testimony given by Mrs Kandara that she and Josea had counted the money on the day he delivered it to her.Josea, however, again denied that they had counted the money.He maintained that Mrs Kandara only signed for the money on the bonnet of a car in her garage before he handed over the money and left.Josea also later acknowledged that the paper Mrs Kandara signed was in fact not for the N$250 000 but another one detailing other transactions between Josea and Lazarus Kandara.