Fugitive Chinese loses N$1,5m bail deposit

AN AMOUNT of N$1,5 million that was deposited to have a Chinese citizen facing charges over a massive customs scam released on bail was finally forfeited to the state last week.

The N$1,5 million was forfeited to the state with the expiry of a two-week waiting period that followed after Chinese national Huang Jinrong failed to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud and money laundering on 1 August.

Huang was granted bail in an amount of N$1,5 million on 23 January this year – about a month after his arrest on charges connected to an alleged customs scam involving the equivalent of about N$3,5 billion that has been sent out of Namibia.

He made a follow-up court appearance on 16 February, and his bail was then extended until his next scheduled appearance in the dock at the start of August. However, Huang was absent from court when five other Chinese nationals and a Walvis Bay-based businessman who are charged in the same case made another appearance before a magistrate on 1 August.

As a result of his failure to appear in court, a warrant for Huang’s arrest was issued, and his bail was provisionally cancelled and forfeited to the state.

The provisional forfeiture became final on Tuesday last week.

Defence lawyer Sisa Namandje, who represented Huang during a bail hearing in January, on Thursday said he had not been contacted by Huang since he failed to appear in court.

He also did not know Huang’s current whereabouts, Namandje said.

The police are still looking for Huang, Namibian Police spokesperson deputy commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi also said last week.

Huang was granted bail on condition that he had to surrender his passport to the police, and was prohibited from obtaining new travelling documents. He was also not allowed to leave the Ohangwena district without prior permission from the police.

The magistrate who granted him bail further ordered that a photocopy of Huang’s passport and a photo and description of him had to be distributed to all of Namibia’s border posts.

Huang’s passport is still with the police, Kanguatjivi said.

Checks at the country’s border posts have not produced any record of Huang having left the country through the official points of exit, he also said.

The charges faced by Huang and his co-accused are based on allegations that Chinese-owned businesses based mostly at Oshikango have from 2013 to the end of February last year been using false or manipulated import documentation to send about N$3,5 billion out of Namibia – mostly to China – through the bank accounts of two companies of Walvis Bay businessman Laurensius Julius, and that the value of goods imported into Namibia was underdeclared to the customs authorities to evade the payment of customs duties.

During his bail hearing in January, Huang said he was in Namibia on a business visa expiring in August next year, and was employed as a driver at a Chinese-owned shop at Oshikango. While he denied having been involved in imports done by his employer, Golden Star Textiles Enterprises, and payments that were made for goods imported by the business, the prosecution charged that Huang had signing rights on the bank account of Golden Star Textiles, and that his name was present on bank documents through which Golden Star made payments for goods it had supposedly imported into Namibia.

The court was also informed during the bail hearing that Golden Star had sent US$2,4 million (close to N$32 million) out of Namibia as payment for goods of which the value declared to the customs authorities was only US$100 000 (about N$1,3 million).

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