MATHIAS HAUFIKU and TILENI MONGUDHITHE liquidators of the SME Bank are suing businesswoman Tania Hangula and ministerial assistant Esau Mbako to pay back N$7,4 million allegedly stolen from the now defunct bank.
Hangula, who is the Development Bank of Namibia’s board chairperson, received N$6,4 million which allegedly originated from the looted bank.
Mbako – minister of agriculture, water and land reform Calle Schlettwein’s executive assistant – said he got a N$970 000 loan directly from fraud-accused Enoch Kamushinda, who is accused of stealing taxpayers’ money and savings from the SME Bank.
Mbako is quoted in the court papers as saying he arranged a loan agreement with Kamushinda during 2010 in the lobby of the Windhoek Country Club Resort and Casino.
Hangula and Mbako served as president Hage Geingob’s assistants on separate occasions before he became president in 2015.
The SME Bank liquidators’ claims against the two are the first against high-profile persons hauled before the courts in one of Namibia’s biggest bank fraud scandals, involving close to N$250 million allegedly stolen from the bank for a clique of Namibian and Zimbabwean businessmen.
Now the curtain is being raised on some people accused of benefiting from alleged ill-gotten money from the SME Bank.
Documents filed at the High Court paint a picture of two individuals who cashed in to buy nice-to-haves with money meant to benefit small businesses.
Hangula, it is claimed in court documents, benefited around N$6,4 million she received from the SME Bank between 2015 and 2019.
SME Bank funds are said to have been used to buy her a N$1,2 million property at the Long Beach residential area between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund.
SME Bank loot was allegedly used to pay N$740 000 for Hangula’s E250 Mercedes-Benz vehicle. Around N$1 million was allegedly paid to her in cash.
Liquidators Ian McLaren and David Bruni believe Hangula was paid through a consultancy agreement between her and the SME Bank from 2015 to 2019.
The liquidators are claiming the consultancy agreement was used as a conduit to transfer money stolen from the SME Bank into Hangula’s bank account and her company Umoja Trading.
The consulting agreement between Hangula and the SME Bank has been described as “obscure” in court documents.
This was because Hangula’s fees for the arrangement mainly came from third parties, in the form of people and entities linked to Kamushinda.
Such entities were allegedly used to channel the stolen money.
The liquidators say their investigations found that apart from not receiving the money directly from the SME Bank, Hangula never invoiced the bank for her payments, which according to them is evidence that she rendered no services to the SME Bank to warrant payments made to her.
“The defendant as an experienced businesswoman knew that no commercial bank could enter into such an agreement with any person, particularly without any written invoices being delivered to the SME Bank, before the SME Bank made payments to the defendant,” read the court documents.
The liquidators have also revealed that payments to Hangula were concealed and not disclosed in the bank’s financial records or to its auditors.
According to court papers, Hangula disputed the N$6,4 million she received from SME Bank, claiming she received only N$5,4 million in total.
Hangula entered into a consulting agreement as a “fundraiser” with the SME Bank during 2012.
She was going to be paid a monthly fee of N$50 000 and was also entitled to a 0,5% commission.
The SME Bank undertook to pay her travelling expenses as well as a travelling allowance when conducting her fundraising endeavours.
Despite the agreement having been penned during 2012, Hangula only started receiving her monthly payments in 2015.
The Namibian’s investigation into the SME Bank, which was allegedly used as a slush fund for Hangula and other politically connected individuals, shows how money meant to support upcoming businesses was used to maintain the personal lifestyles of an elite club.
She told investigators she did not “notice or realise at the time that the amounts which were paid to her were not paid into her bank account(s) by the SME Bank itself, but she believed that the amounts were paid to her by the SME Bank”.
Hangula’s profile started rising in 2015 after she was appointed to two powerful parastatal boards.
One is the Development Bank of Namibia, where she is the chairperson, and the other is Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia), where she was deputy board chairperson.
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