Josea bankruptcy hearing resumes

AN ALREADY drawn-out hearing that is set to determine the financial future of one of the main figures in last year’s N$30 million Social Security Commission investment fiasco resumed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

In the hearing that restarted before Judge President Petrus Damaseb after an almost two-and-a-half-month break yesterday, the Judge President continued hearing arguments on applications to have both an asset-management company that was used as an intermediary in the transfer of the SSC’s investment, Namangol Investments, and the company’s owner and Chief Executive Officer, Nico Josea, declared bankrupt. Today the Judge President is set to continue hearing arguments from Jaco van Rooyen, the lawyer representing Namangol Investments and Josea, and Andrew Corbett, representing the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid Investment Corporation, the asset-management company with which the SSC originally struck a deal for the investment of N$30 million in January last year.The liquidator, Eric Knouwds, is claiming that Namangol Investments and Josea are unable to repay to Avid the money that the latter company transferred to Namangol Investments after the SSC first gave Avid N$30 million in late January last year with the understanding that this money was to be invested for a four-month period.Avid transferred N$29,5 million of the SSC’s N$30 million to Namangol Investments, and from there the money started flowing in various directions both within and out of Namibia – including, it is alleged, into the personal pockets of Josea and Avid’s creator and de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara.Josea is opposing the applications to have the court issue an order liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating his personal estate.When affidavits forming part of the record of the three related cases that the Judge President is hearing at the same time were first filed with the court last year, Josea claimed that the money that he and his company were supposed to invest on the SSC’s and Avid’s behalf was supposed to be repaid only by early March this year.That deadline has passed without the money being repaid, but Josea and his legal team had an argument ready to explain that failure to honour the repayment promise.That argument is that the interference of the SSC, Avid and the liquidator, when they started insisting that the investment had to be repaid, threw such a spanner into the works that it made it impossible for Namangol and Josea to make the repayment as promised.The combined bankruptcy hearing on Namangol Investments and Josea finally began – after previous abortive starts in November last year and late January this year – on March 2.The Judge President heard arguments from the two lawyers over the course of three days in that first session of the hearing.The hearing has been set down to continue today and on Monday.Today the Judge President is set to continue hearing arguments from Jaco van Rooyen, the lawyer representing Namangol Investments and Josea, and Andrew Corbett, representing the liquidator who was put in charge of Avid Investment Corporation, the asset-management company with which the SSC originally struck a deal for the investment of N$30 million in January last year.The liquidator, Eric Knouwds, is claiming that Namangol Investments and Josea are unable to repay to Avid the money that the latter company transferred to Namangol Investments after the SSC first gave Avid N$30 million in late January last year with the understanding that this money was to be invested for a four-month period.Avid transferred N$29,5 million of the SSC’s N$30 million to Namangol Investments, and from there the money started flowing in various directions both within and out of Namibia – including, it is alleged, into the personal pockets of Josea and Avid’s creator and de facto CEO, the late Lazarus Kandara.Josea is opposing the applications to have the court issue an order liquidating Namangol Investments and sequestrating his personal estate.When affidavits forming part of the record of the three related cases that the Judge President is hearing at the same time were first filed with the court last year, Josea claimed that the money that he and his company were supposed to invest on the SSC’s and Avid’s behalf was supposed to be repaid only by early March this year.That deadline has passed without the money being repaid, but Josea and his legal team had an argument ready to explain that failure to honour the repayment promise.That argument is that the interference of the SSC, Avid and the liquidator, when they started insisting that the investment had to be repaid, threw such a spanner into the works that it made it impossible for Namangol and Josea to make the repayment as promised.The combined bankruptcy hearing on Namangol Investments and Josea finally began – after previous abortive starts in November last year and late January this year – on March 2.The Judge President heard arguments from the two lawyers over the course of three days in that first session of the hearing.The hearing has been set down to continue today and on Monday.