Magistrate dismisses Mbok bail bid

A BAIL application by Cameroonian-born businessman Antoine Mbok, who was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission two weeks ago, ended in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday with Mbok remaining in Police custody.
Mbok (36) has been charged with counts of corruption, fraud and theft after his arrest on March 4.

He was arrested after cheques meant for the Ministry of Finance were paid into a bank account of a company of Mbok, named M Finance, on four occasions from January 25 to February 20 this year.A total of over N$3,944 million that was supposed to be destined for the Ministry of Finance’s account was paid into M Finance’s account. Mbok, who is a director and shareholder of M Finance, subsequently withdrew about N$372 000 from the company’s account before his arrest.Mbok vigorously defended himself during the hearing of his bail application on Monday. He claimed he was a victim in the affair and charged that the Anti-Corruption Commission was a body with ‘vast powers’ that is now behaving like a sort of secret police.’M Finance and myself as the director should be looked at as the victims, not the perpetrators,’ he told Magistrate Ingrid Soabes at one stage of the hearing.’The only crime committed here is these charges that were laid against me,’ he said.’Your worship, I’m a target, I’m a soft target,’ he told the magistrate at another stage.’There are people out there who are out to get me,’ Mbok claimed.He told the court that he was expecting some N$4,4 million to be paid into the account of M Finance, and when he saw that the more than N$3,9 million had been deposited into the account, he was under the impression that this was part of the money that he was waiting for.Mbok claimed that M Finance had an agreement to act as an intermediary between a Chinese company, Chinam Investment Trading, and an Angolan company, Rafael Limitada, in a deal in which the Angolan company was selling 56 kilograms of gold dust to the Chinese company.The gold dust was to be sold for a price of US$599 200 (about N$4,43 million), and this money was supposed to be paid into the account of M Finance, Mbok told the court.The owner of the Chinese company, Derek Wu, was one of the witnesses who testified on behalf of the State during the bail hearing on Monday. He claimed that he received only a sample of three grams of the gold dust, and not the full 56 kg. His company’s agreement with M Finance was not finalised, as he was still waiting for further documentation stipulated in the contract to be provided to him, Wu claimed.Mbok, claiming that Wu had received 56 kg of gold dust for which he still had to pay some N$4,4 million into M Finance’s account, accused Wu of committing perjury with his testimony.Wu insisted he had received only a sample of three grams.Also on Monday, ACC chief investigating officer Justine Namukwambi told the court that the cheques had disappeared at the Ministry of Finance before they were paid into M Finance’s account.Namukwambi testified that she is still investigating how the cheques got out of the Ministry of Finance, where they had been sent by taxpayers, and ended up being deposited into the Mbok company’s account.Deposit slips on which the four deposits into the M Finance account were recorded show that three of these deposits were made at the Okahandja branch of Standard Bank Namibia, with one deposit made at a branch in Windhoek.With the first deposit, ‘Chinam Investments’ is reflected on the deposit slip as the depositor, while ‘Gold deposit’ is written in a section reserved for instructions.With the second deposit, ‘Chinam tax’ is reflected as the supposed depositor, while ‘Chinam tax settlement’ is reflected as the depositor with the fourth deposit. The depositor in respect of the third deposit is stated as ‘Tax services Whk’.With all three of the deposits that were made at Okahandja, cheques from another company that allegedly belongs to Mbok were deposited into the M Finance account together with cheques meant for the Ministry of Finance, Namukwambi said.Mbok has denied that he deposited the cheques into the account, and told her that he does not know who made the deposit, Namukwambi said. For as long as Mbok is the sole signatory on the account, she will however hold him responsible for what happened in the account, she said.’As long as you are going to look at me as the perpetrator, you are never going to solve this case,’ Mbok told Namukwambi.He told the court that there is ‘absolutely no evidence that links me in any way to the theft, or even to a conspiracy to steal’. He said he is confident that the case the ACC has lodged against him would in the end not hold any water in court.Magistrate Soabes did not entirely agree with him in the ruling she delivered on Wednesday. She said the court had been convinced that the State has a strong case against Mbok.She did not agree with the prosecution’s claim that there is a likelihood that Mbok – who is married to a Namibian citizen and has five children in the country – would abscond if he is released on bail.She however found that there is a reasonable possibility that Mbok might interfere with State witnesses and with the investigation of the case if he is released from custody, and as a result dismissed his application to be granted bail.Mbok has to appear in court again on April 22.Public Prosecutor Hans Thourob represented the State.