THE Prosecutor General transferred the B1 City fraud case to the High Court yesterday.
Former RCC chief executive officer Kelly Nghixulifwa and co-accused, Anna Ndoroma, Hafeni Nghinamwaami and David Imbili, will attend a pre-trial hearing in the High Court in Windhoek on 10 April.
The Prosecutor General has decided to arraign the four and the companies /Ae //Gams Engineering, represented by Imbili, and Cradle Investments, represented by Nghinamwaami, on a total of eight charges.
Four of the charges flow from the Roads Contractor Company (RCC)’s involvement in the B1 City property development project in 2005 and 2006.
Other charges relate to Nghixulifwa’s tenure as RCC’s chief executive officer, which ended with his resignation, after he had been suspended at the end of 2006.
Nghixulifwa will face all eight of the charges, consisting of three main counts of corruptly using his office or position for gratification, which is an offence in terms of the Anti-Corruption Act, two main counts of fraud, two main charges of failing to disclose his interest in a contract to the board of directors of the RCC, and a charge of using or concealing property obtained through corruption.
In the indictment listing the charges, it is alleged that Nghixulifwa was a shareholder in both /Ae //Gams Engineering and Cradle Investments, but concealed his stake by having his shares held in Ndoroma’s name.
It is alleged that Nghixulifwa failed to disclose his interests in the two companies to the RCC board of directors.
Nghinamwaami and Imbili were also shareholders of /Ae //Gams Engineering.
The RCC became involved in the B1 City shopping complex and taxi rank development after Imbili, representing /Ae //Gams Engineering, and Nghixulifwa, representing the RCC, signed an agreement in February 2005 in terms of which the RCC and /Ae //Gams Engineering were to undertake the property development as a joint venture.
It is charged that Nghixulifwa, Imbili, Nghinamwaami, Ndoroma and /Ae //Gams Engineering corruptly used Nghixulifwa’s position at the RCC to buy the plot of land where the B1 City development was to take place on behalf of /Ae //Gams Engineering, using RCC funds and a credit facility of N$4,87 million.
Nghixulifwa allegedly also defrauded the RCC by bringing managers at the parastatal and the chairperson of the RCC board under the impression that a mortgage bond of N$4,87 million had been registered over the B1 City property in RCC’s favour, when in fact that had not been done, it is charged.
It is also alleged that Nghixulifwa defrauded the RCC and Murray & Roberts in December 2004 by concealing his shareholding in Cradle Investments and inducing the RCC and Murray & Roberts to pay a ‘facilitation fee’ of N$150 000 to the company and Nghinamwaami for the role they had supposedly played in the construction of a new head office for the RCC. It is alleged that in fact Nghinamwaami and Cradle Investments had not been appointed as project facilitators and were not entitled to receive such a fee.
Nghinamwaami and Ndoroma are charged with two main counts of corruptly using an office or position for gratification and further charges of fraud and using or concealing property obtained through corruption.
Imbili and /Ae //Gams Engineering are charged with main counts of corruptly using an office or position for gratification and using or concealing property obtained through corruption.
Cradle Investments is charged with counts of fraud and corruptly using an office or position for gratification.
The four accused have been released on bail of N$60 000 each.
