Former Bank Windhoek employee Heidi Boois in court over N$3.36 million Namcor fraud case

The alleged fraudulent opening of a bank account for a fugitive suspect in the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Namcor) fraud and corruption case landed a former bank employee in the dock in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Former Bank Windhoek employee Heidi Boois (49) appeared before magistrate Ilge Rheent on five charges, following her arrest on Friday.

Boois is the 12th individual charged in connection with alleged fraud and corruption at Namcor, with her arrest taking place nearly seven months after the first arrests in the matter were carried out in July last year.

Boois is charged with counts of fraud and forgery and uttering, and also contraventions of the Anti-Corruption Act, the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the Financial Intelligence Act.

The charges are linked to the alleged fraudulent opening of a bank account in the name of the close corporation Quality Meat Supplies of the fugitive Victor Malima, who is wanted in connection with the Namcor case and is reported to have left Namibia in July last year.

The state is alleging that Boois helped Malima to open a bank account for Quality Meat Supplies with the use of an identity document of someone else, who was not present when the account was opened in October 2022.

In the charges on which Boois appeared in court yesterday, the state is alleging that Boois forged the signature of one Hileni Itana, whose identity document Malima allegedly provided to Bank Windhoek in Itana’s absence, on documents to open a bank account for Quality Meat Supplies.

The state is also alleging that the account of Quality Meat Supplies was subsequently used to make payments totalling N$3.36 million to former Namcor manager Cedric Willemse, who is also charged in the Namcor case, and to the close corporation Panduleni Farming.

At the time the payments were allegedly made, one of the other accused in the matter, Panduleni Hamukwaya, was the sole member of Panduleni Farming.

Hamukwaya is married to Jennifer Hamukwaya, who is also an accused in the same case and was Namcor’s executive for finance and administration when the payments were made.

Panduleni Hamukwaya confirmed during a bail hearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura last week that payments totalling N$1.45 million were made by Quality Meat Supplies to an account of Panduleni Farming during 2022.

Hamukwaya said the payments were made after Malima agreed to invest N$1.8 million in a wildlife farming project that he (Hamukwaya) planned to set up at a resettlement farm that he has in the Otjozondjupa region.

During Boois’ court appearance yesterday, defence lawyer Kadhila Amoomo informed the magistrate he is disputing the lawfulness of Boois’ arrest.

She was arrested under a defective warrant of apprehension, and he will be asking the court to set aside the arrest warrant and order Boois’ release, Amoomo said.

Boois is being held in custody in the meantime, after public prosecutor Eric Naikaku informed the court the state is opposed to bail being granted to her.

Boois is scheduled to return to court on Friday, for a date for a bail hearing to be decided.

The state is claiming that the accused in the Namcor fraud and corruption case were involved in fraud, corruption and other offences allegedly committed when the fuel company Enercon Namibia sold filling station assets at Namibian Defence Force bases to a Namcor subsidiary, Namcor Petroleum Trading and Distribution, for N$53.2 million in July 2022.

The state is also alleging that Namcor was defrauded when Enercon and another fuel firm, the close corporation Erongo Petroleum, bought fuel products from Namcor, exceeded their credit limits with the company and failed to pay for the products they had bought.

Boois’ co-accused in the matter have to make their next court appearance on 19 March.

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