Estate agent should explain receipt of general’s money

A SWAKOPMUND estate agent being sued for almost a million United States dollars by an army general from the Democratic Republic of Congo needs to explain why he received the money that the general paid into a bank account of his business, a High Court judge has ruled.

Estate agent Erwin Sprangers received money into his estate agency’s business account, and he should explain how and under what circumstances that happened and for what he received the money, judge Thomas Masuku stated in a ruling handed down in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.

In the ruling, judge Masuku dismissed an attempt by Sprangers to bring an end to a case in which DRC general François Olenga is suing him for US$850 000 (currently the equivalent of about N$11,8 million).

In an application to have Olenga’s claim against Sprangers dismissed after the evidence in support of Olenga’s claim had been presented to the court, Sprangers’ lawyer, George Coleman, argued that Olenga had failed to show that he was the owner of the money allegedly deposited into Sprangers’ business account on his instructions. Coleman also argued that the evidence in support of Olenga’s claim was at times confusing and contradictory, judge Masuku recounted in his judgement.

Whether Olenga proved that the money paid into Sprangers’ account belonged to him did not in his view have a determining effect on the general’s claim, the judge remarked.

He added that the evidence before him painted a picture that pointed to a need for Sprangers to be called to explain why he received the money, as it was clear that he and Olenga had some business engagements, and that he gave his bank account number to Olenga before large amounts were deposited into the account.

Olenga is claiming that he paid US$900 000 (amounting to about N$6,78 million at the exchange rate at that time) to Sprangers in September 2010, and that Sprangers has failed and refused to repay all but US$50 000 of that money to him. The money that he transferred to an account of Sprangers’ estate agency at Swakopmund via a company registered in Delaware in the United States of America was supposed to be used for the development of plots of land that he owned at the coastal town, Olenga has told the court.

According to Sprangers, though, he and Olenga had an oral agreement that gave his estate agency a mandate to sell two unimproved properties that Olenga owned at Swakopmund.

During November 2009, they also agreed orally that Olenga would act as his agent to sell an antique Chinese vase, Sprangers is claiming. He is alleging that Olenga found an unnamed buyer for the eighteenth-century Qianlong vase at a price of N$10 million in February 2010. After the purchaser had paid about N$6,78 million, which was a part of the purchase price, into his business bank account, Sprangers further claims, he paid a commission of N$500 000 to Olenga in September 2010.

Sprangers is also saying in a witness statement filed with the court that two Chinese men collected the vase from him at Swakopmund in July 2010.

The first that he heard of his alleged role in helping Sprangers to sell an antique Chinese vase was when he read about it in the documents lodged at the court on behalf of Sprangers, Olenga has told judge Masuku during his testimony.

Olenga is being represented by lawyers Ray Rukoro and Ramon Maasdorp. Coleman is representing Sprangers on instructions from Philip Swanepoel.

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