Crypto fraud accused flee Namibia, warrants issued

Warrants for the arrest of seven people charged with operating an international online fraud scheme from Namibia were issued yesterday, after the accused failed to appear in the Windhoek High Court for a pretrial hearing.

State advocate Basson Lilungwe informed judge Philanda Christiaan yesterday that the seven accused who were absent from court had all been released on bail but stopped reporting to the police – one of their bail conditions – earlier this year. The hearing was attended by seven other accused in the case.

Lilungwe said the police have visited the places of residence of the seven absent accused and found the premises empty, leading them to conclude that the accused have left Namibia.

Six of the seven missing accused are Chinese citizens, while one is a citizen of Singapore.

Lilungwe also informed the judge that the state would now have to re-evaluate and amend the charges faced by the remaining seven accused.

Christiaan issued warrants for the arrest of Chinese citizens Zheng Haifeng, Wu Weiyang, Shi Zi Jun, Chen Wuyu, Neng Jun Wu and Guo Linjie, and Singapore national Ghim Hwee Ang.

She also declared their bail deposits provisionally forfeited to the state, with the forfeiture order to become final by 20 May.

Zheng was released on bail in an amount of N$100 000, while Wu and Ghim were free on bail in an amount of N$70 000 each.

Shi, Chen and Neng were released on bail in an amount of N$50 000 each.

Guo was granted bail in an amount of N$30 000. The seven other accused who were present in court are Chinese citizens Fan Jia, Lin Shu Lin and Chen You Yi, Cuban national Carlos Baptista Valdes and Namibians Tango Muulyau, Toivo Herman and Mclanda Domingo.

They are jointly charged with 65 counts, consisting of 57 charges of trafficking in persons, six charges of fraud, alternatively theft by false pretences, a count of racketeering and a count of money laundering.

Fan is also charged with a count of withholding an identity document or travel document of a person to facilitate or promote an offence of trafficking in persons, while Baptista is also charged with entering Namibia without a valid passport and visa.

The state is alleging that between December 2022 and October 2023 the accused recruited unemployed Namibians through the close corporation Raylon Investments and trained them to lure people to make investments in cryptocurrency accounts controlled by them.

The recruited employees are alleged to have been subjected to exploitation in the form of forced labour and economic and criminal exploitation.

The state is also alleging that the recruited employees were made to create fake social media accounts and profiles, posing as American and European women to build relationships with victims who were lured to make investments into cryptocurrency accounts controlled by the accused.

Targeted victims of the alleged scam paid amounts of US$111 000 (then about N$2 million), 74 000 euros (then about N$1.5 million), US$36 000 (about N$570 000), 10 000 Canadian dollars (then about N$140 000), 4 969 British pounds (then about N$116 000), US$4 000 (then about N$77 200) and 2 000 British pounds (then about N$46 900) into cryptocurrency accounts controlled by the accused, who then stole the invested money, the state is alleging.

The equivalent of a total amount of about N$4.4 million was allegedly stolen by the accused.

The accused were arrested in October 2023.

The remaining accused in the case have to appear in the Windhoek High Court for another pretrial hearing on 20 May.

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