Shalli’s bank account frozen

THE Prosecutor General has obtained a court order to freeze the equivalent of N$2,8 million in a Zambian bank account in the name of former Namibian Defence Force chief Martin Shalli.

The money in the now-retired Lieutenant General Shalli’s bank account at Standard Chartered Bank in Lusaka is the proceeds of crime, namely corruption, money laundering and offences under the Income Tax Act, Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa is alleging in an affidavit filed with the High Court.The money was paid to Shalli by a Chinese company which had a contract to supply the Namibian Defence Force with military equipment valued at close to a billion Namibia dollars, it is alleged. Shalli has told the Police that the money he received from the Chinese company was for the lease of his house in Windhoek by the company, the court was also informed.In her affidavit Imalwa motivated her request for a court order, issued in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, through which she wanted Shalli’s account to be frozen until she has taken further legal steps towards having the money in the account forfeited to the State.A preservation order over the money in the account was granted by Judge Johan Swanepoel in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act two weeks ago. The application before Judge Swanepoel was heard behind closed doors, and the order and the record of the case filed by the PG were kept under wraps until the order was served on Shalli’s lawyers this week.In terms of the order granted by Judge Swanepoel the money in Shalli’s account has been placed under the control of the Attorney General of Zambia until legal proceedings aimed at having the money forfeited have been finalised.An amount of US$359 526,27 (about N$2,8 million at the current exchange rate) is in the account, the court was informed.A state-owned Chinese company, Poly Technologies Incorporated (Poly Tech), paid a total of US$499 950 (about N$3,89 million at the current exchange rate) into Shalli’s Zambian bank account through two deposits of US$249 975 each in October 2008 and February 2009 respectively, Imalwa stated in her affidavit.At the time that the money was paid into Shalli’s account, Poly Tech had a contract to supply military equipment valued at US$126,4 million (about N$985 million) to Namibia’s Government, Imalwa told the court.In bank documentation in respect of both deposits these were described as commissions, the PG related. The reference number of Poly Tech’s contract with the Ministry of Defence was also on the bank remittance advices in respect of the two deposits, she said.Shalli admitted to Major General Peter Nambundunga, then acting as NDF chief, on July 16 2009 that he had accepted a commission offered to him, Imalwa also claimed.When he was interviewed by the Police in August 2009, though, Shalli said he did not know why Poly Tech had labelled the two deposits into his account as ‘commission’, Imalwa stated.She informed the court that Shalli told the Police he had an agreement with Poly Tech that the company would be renting his house in Windhoek’s Suiderhof area for a ten-year period for an amount of US$500 000, which was to be paid in advance.In Shalli’s version, the Chinese company occupied his house in June 2008, Imalwa said. That was a month after the Zambian authorities had first frozen Shalli’s bank account, she noted.Imalwa also claimed that according to a senior military officer who was part of a delegation that visited China to buy military equipment under the contract with Poly Tech, the prices on the quotation which the delegation received from the company in China were inflated, forcing the delegation to reduce the quantity of equipment they were planning to order so that they could remain within the contract budget of US$126,4 million.Shalli, who served as Namibia’s High Commissioner to Zambia before he became NDF chief, asked the former third secretary of Namibia’s High Commission in Lusaka, Elsie Ausiku, to open an account for him in Zambia, Imalwa also informed the court.After money had been paid into the account, Shalli asked Ausiku to make various withdrawals from the account, Ausiku has told the Police.The money paid into the account included a deposit of US$199 955 (about N$1,5 million) which one ‘Vilho’ made through a bank in Hong Kong, Ausiku is claimed to have told the Police.In March 2009, Ausiku took US$100 000 which she had withdrawn from Shalli’s account to Namibia, and handed it over to Shalli at his house in Windhoek, Ausiku also told the Police, according to Imalwa. He asked her not to tell his wife about the money, Imalwa claimed.Shalli also asked her to withdraw the equivalent of US$40 000 for him, and she took this money to him at his office at the Ministry of Defence the next day, Imalwa alleged.When Ausiku met Shalli again in Windhoek in June 2009, he told her that he had Chinese friends with whom he was doing business, and asked her to tell the Police that a Chinese woman had approached her and that she had agreed to help the woman transfer money to Namibia, Imalwa also claimed.Shalli was suspended from his position as Namibia’s top military officer in July 2009. After a year and a half on suspension, he retired from his post with full military honours in January this year.Imalwa told The Namibian this week that her office has asked the Police to carry out further investigations in the case in which allegations against Shalli are being probed.With the court order freezing his bank account in Lusaka, Shalli has become the most high-profile target yet of the crime-busting arsenal created in Namibia’s Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

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