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Date set for second Telecom scrap copper corruption trial

Date set for second Telecom scrap copper corruption trial

THE repeatedly deferred trial of two Windhoek businessmen and a former senior Telecom Namibia manager who are accused of involvement in a scam to defraud Telecom through a scrap copper sale deal is now scheduled to take place in the High Court in Windhoek in the second half of September.

At their latest pre-trial appearance in the High Court on Thursday last week, businessmen Heinz Dresselhaus and Ettienne Weakley and former Telecom Namibia General Manager James Camm were informed that their trial, which had been set to start during May, is now scheduled to begin on September 17. The trial has been set down on the High Court roll until September 28, the three accused men were told during their appearance before Judge Sylvester Mainga.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small, who is set to represent the State at the trial, told Judge Mainga that some additional documents have become available and that the defence first wishes to take the time to examine these before the trial starts.Dresselhaus, Weakley and Camm are set to face a total of 30 charges, set out in an indictment running over 102 typewritten pages, at their trial.The charges consist of 11 main counts of corruption, 13 main counts of fraud and six main counts of theft, with various alternative charges also set out under each of the main counts.All the charges flow from allegations that the three men and a former colleague of Camm at Telecom Namibia, Lutchmanan Ivan Ganes, were joint partners in a scam under the cover of an agreement that Telecom Namibia had to sell scrap copper to a scrap dealership of Dresselhaus and Weakley, Dresselhaus Scrap CC.The State alleges that during the existence of this agreement, and specifically from October 1998 to February 2001, Dresselhaus and Weakley on some occasions removed scrap copper belonging to Telecom Namibia without paying the company anything at all for the material, that they on other occasions paid Telecom Namibia a lower fee than had been agreed, and that during this process kickbacks totalling some N$1,3 million were shared between Ganes, Camm, Dresselhaus and Weakley.Of this amount, it is charged, payments that Dresselhaus and Weakley made to Ganes alone amounted to N$315 550.The prosecution is further alleging that the under-invoicing that Dresselhaus Scrap allegedly employed when buying scrap copper from Telecom Namibia at fraudulently low prices cost Telecom some N$1,18 million.Ganes and Weakley were initially the only people to be criminally charged in the matter.Ganes was the first to be arrested, in mid-June 2001, with Weakley charged early in July 2001.Both were released after being granted bail of N$100 000 each.Also early in July that year, Ganes broke his bail conditions by fleeing to South Africa, forfeiting the N$100 000 bail that he had paid.He was eventually returned to Namibia in October 2004 under an extradition order issued by a Cape Town Magistrate.In May 2005, Ganes pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud in the High Court.He told the court in testimony that Dresselhaus and Camm, too, had been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme that he admitted he was part of.Following Ganes’s accusations in court, Dresselhaus and Camm were also arrested and charged in early June 2005.Five days later, Ganes was sentenced to an effective prison term of two years and a fine of N$100 000 on the 13 charges that he had admitted.He has since been released.Telecom Namibia also took civil legal action against Dresselhaus Scrap by suing it for some N$3,49 million, which it claimed was money that Dresselhaus Scrap still owed it for scrap copper that the parastatal claimed to have sold to Dresselhaus Scrap.That case was settled in July 2005, when Dresselhaus Scrap reportedly agreed to pay N$2,4 million to Telecom Namibia.All three charged men remain free on bail pending the start of the trial.A South African lawyer based in Gauteng Province, Willie Vermeulen, SC, and Windhoek lawyer Louis Botes will represent Dresselhaus and Weakley.The trial has been set down on the High Court roll until September 28, the three accused men were told during their appearance before Judge Sylvester Mainga.Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small, who is set to represent the State at the trial, told Judge Mainga that some additional documents have become available and that the defence first wishes to take the time to examine these before the trial starts.Dresselhaus, Weakley and Camm are set to face a total of 30 charges, set out in an indictment running over 102 typewritten pages, at their trial.The charges consist of 11 main counts of corruption, 13 main counts of fraud and six main counts of theft, with various alternative charges also set out under each of the main counts.All the charges flow from allegations that the three men and a former colleague of Camm at Telecom Namibia, Lutchmanan Ivan Ganes, were joint partners in a scam under the cover of an agreement that Telecom Namibia had to sell scrap copper to a scrap dealership of Dresselhaus and Weakley, Dresselhaus Scrap CC.The State alleges that during the existence of this agreement, and specifically from October 1998 to February 2001, Dresselhaus and Weakley on some occasions removed scrap copper belonging to Telecom Namibia without paying the company anything at all for the material, that they on other occasions paid Telecom Namibia a lower fee than had been agreed, and that during this process kickbacks totalling some N$1,3 million were shared between Ganes, Camm, Dresselhaus and Weakley.Of this amount, it is charged, payments that Dresselhaus and Weakley made to Ganes alone amounted to N$315 550.The prosecution is further alleging that the under-invoicing that Dresselhaus Scrap allegedly employed when buying scrap copper from Telecom Namibia at fraudulently low prices cost Telecom some N$1,18 million.Ganes and Weakley were initially the only people to be criminally charged in the matter.Ganes was the first to be arrested, in mid-June 2001, with Weakley charged early in July 2001.Both were released after being granted bail of N$100 000 each.Also early in July that year, Ganes broke his bail conditions by fleeing to South Africa, forfeiting the N$100 000 bail that he had paid.He was eventually returned to Namibia in October 2004 under an extradition order issued by a Cape Town Magistrate.In May 2005, Ganes pleaded guilty to 13 counts of fraud in the High Court.He told the court in testimony that Dresselhaus and Camm, too, had been involved in the alleged fraudulent scheme that he admitted he was part of.Following Ganes’s accusations in court, Dresselhaus and Camm were also arrested and charged in early June 2005.Five days later, Ganes was sentenced to an effective prison term of two years and a fine of N$100 000 on the 13 charges that he had admitted.He has since been released.Telecom Namibia also took civil legal action against Dresselhaus Scrap by suing it for some N$3,49 million, which it claimed was money that Dresselhaus Scrap still owed it for scrap copper that the parastatal claimed to have sold to Dresselhaus Scrap.That case was settled in July 2005, when Dresselhaus Scrap reportedly agreed to pay N$2,4 million to Telecom Namibia.All three charged men remain free on bail pending the start of the trial.A South African lawyer based in Gauteng Province, Willie Vermeulen, SC, and Windhoek lawyer Louis Botes will represent Dresselhaus and Weakley.

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