A RESIDENT of the Onawa area at Oshakati, Victoria Amwaandangi, is accused of using the identity card and payslip of Julia Amutenya, a teacher at Joseph Simaneka Asino Junior Secondary School in the Oshikoto region, to apply for a loan of N$290 500 at Letshego Bank.
Prosecutor general Martha Imalwa in an affidavit filed at the Oshakati High Court as part of an application under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act to seize Amwaandangi’s assets, said Amwaandangi asked Amutenya to provide her ID card on 2 March via SMS so that she could register her at their church as her maid of honour.
Imalwa says Amwaandangi obtained Amutenya’s ID card the next day.
She then allegedly went to the education directorate in the department of finance at Oshakati with Amutenya’s ID card, pretending she was Amutenya, and requested a payslip.
“The officials there assisted [Amwaandangi] by requesting that Amutenya’s payslip be sent from the ministry of education office in the Oshikoto region,” Imalwa says in her affidavit.
“They received it electronically in the Oshana region, printed it, got it date-stamped there and provided it to [Amwaandangi].”
Three days later, Imalwa says, Amwaandangi went to Letshego Bank at Oshakati and obtained Amutenya’s confirmation of employment form, which needed to be signed by the school principal or a relevant human resources practitioner.
“She took that form to Ondangwa, pretended to be Ms Amutenya, and got the form signed by the senior human resources officer.
“On that day, [Amwaandangi], equipped with Ms Amutenya’s ID card, payslip and confirmation of employment, went back to Letshego Bank at Oshakati, and presented those documents while pretending to be Ms Amutenya and applied for a loan of N$290 500 as if she is Ms Amutenya,” Imalwa says.
On 7 March, Letshego approved the loan application and an amount of N$290 500 was transferred to Amwaandangi’s Letshego Bank account, Imalwa says.
Letshego issued Amwaandangi with a banking card in Ms Amutenya’s name and set up cellphone banking for her, Imalwa says. On 8 March Amwaandangi then allegedly went to Standard Bank with Amutenya’s ID card and payslip and under false pretences opened a Standard Bank account in Amutenya’s name.
Imwalwa says upon disbursement of the loan, Amwaandangi immediately started disposing of the money.
“[Amwaandangi] made several withdrawals, transfers and purchases from the account altogether totalling approximately N$232 165.
“Among those transactions were N$4 799 spent on purchasing a cellphone at a furniture store at Oshakati, N$15 000 for a double-door fridge at another furniture store at Oshakati, while N$26 000 was transferred to the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia,” she says.
On 9 March, N$200 000 was transferred to a First National Bank account belonging to an entity dealing with cryptocurrency allegedly owned by Hafeni Nashidengo, according to Imalwa.
Imalwa says N$150 000 was transferred from the FNB account to a personal account of Nashidengo on 10 March. The money was later deposited into another account for buying cryptocurrency known as USDT-TRC20.
Imalwa says Amutenya only learned about what Amwaandangi had done with her ID card from Amwaandangi herself on 19 April.
That day, Amutenya allegedly received a call from Amwaandangi telling that she applied for a loan of N$200 000 in Amutenya’s name from Letshego.
“She [Amwaandangi] explained that she needed the money to help her husband to pay off a mistress in Windhoek, who was blackmailing him,” Imalwa says.
After Amutenya reported the matter to the police, Amwaandangi was arrested in May.
The cellphone and fridge she had bought were recovered from her house at Onawa.
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