A bail appeal of a woman facing charges of fraud and money laundering involving a total amount of N$40 million has been dismissed in the Windhoek High Court.
In a judgement delivered yesterday, acting judge Marilize du Plessis said a magistrate who turned down a bail application by Windhoek resident Marlien Conradie (37) in January this year properly evaluated the evidence before her and was not wrong in coming to a conclusion that it would not be in the public interest or in the interest of the administration of justice to grant bail to Conradie.
Du Plessis remarked that the amount of N$40 million involved in the case in which Conradie is charged “is staggering”.
She also commented that during Conradie’s bail hearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, she “did not do herself any favours in refusing to answer questions on the merits of the matter or to even give an indication on whether she would plead guilty or not guilty”.
Du Plessis continued: “She, of course, has the right to conduct her bail application in a manner she sees fit, but the consequence of her choice is that the contention by the state that they have a strong case against her remains unchallenged and must be accepted both by the court below and by this court.”
Judge Naomi Shivute agreed with the judgement of Du Plessis. Conradie has been held in custody since her arrest near the start of last November.
In the charges against her, the state is alleging that she defrauded the company Western Investments Namibia of N$40 million from 2016 to 2025 by pretending that she had been paid money by the companies Onguma Safari Camps, Onguma Nature Reserve, UWM Mineral Processing, Namib Mineral Development Company, Vordu Logistics and Investment Services and Fishers Pan Nature Reserve, and by paying N$40 million into her personal bank accounts.
UWM Mineral Processing obtained a provisional High Court order in terms of which Conradie’s estate was declared bankrupt in June last year.
The provisional order was confirmed and Conradie’s estate was placed under a final order of sequestration in July. The High Court was informed that Western Investments Namibia is a holding company of a group of companies of which Conradie was employed as financial manager.
The chief financial officer of Western Investments Namibia, Abraham Collard, informed the court in a sworn statement that alleged theft from companies in the Western Investments Namibia group was discovered during an audit at the end of April last year.
It was discovered that Conradie had been unlawfully transferring money from the accounts of companies in the Western Investments Namibia group to three bank accounts in her own name since January 2016, and that those payments totalled about N$41.3 million, Collard alleged. An investigation of Conradie’s bank account records showed she spent money lavishly, making numerous purchases of what appeared to be luxury goods, the court was informed as well.
Conradie’s employment with the Western Investments Namibia group of companies was ended in May last year. At that stage, her monthly remuneration was about N$77 000, Collard said. In the appeal judgement, Du Plessis also noted that Conradie is the mother of a baby who was eight months old at the time of her bail hearing.
The magistrate took that fact into account and found that Conradie’s personal circumstances were outweighed by the strength of the state’s case against her and the size of the sum of N$40 million involved in the matter, Du Plessis said. Conradie’s husband, Jan-Hendrik Conradie, was charged as the second accused in her case in December. He was granted bail in an amount of N$10 000 in January, after he had been held in custody for three weeks.
The couple are due to make their next court appearance on the charges they are facing on 13 August.
