As the dust refuses to settle on theMK145 million which businessman Zameer Karim deposited into a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika.
The Weekend Nation has exclusively revealed that the same businessman bought five brand new vehicles worth K85 million and registered them in Mutharika’s name.
Karim of Pioneer Investments Limited is being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for defrauding government in a MK2.7 billion food rations deal at Malawi Police Service and depositing the proceeds in the DPP account in August 2016.
The publication however reveals that in July 2017, Karim bought five Nissan NP 300 pick-ups from Nissan Malawi at a cost of MK17 million each, translating to K85 million, and gave them to the President.
Documents in our possession show that Tax Invoice number 20302982 from Nissan Malawi dated 31st July 2017 to Zameer Karim of P.O Box 567 Blantyre gives details of a white Nissan NP 300 vehicle, chassis number ADNAPGD22Z0097058 at the total cost of K17,000,000.
Payment was made into account number 1001359416 held in the name of Imperial Motors Limited at Victoria Avenue of the National Bank of Malawi.
This vehicle was registered at the Road Traffic Directorate Blantyre Makata office by Zameer Karim on 7th August 2017 under registration number TO 8288 under receipt number GIN1721912143213.
A further dig into documents of ownership at the Road Traffic Directorate is showing that the same vehicle TO 8288 is now owned by Arthur Mutharika whose registration number at Road Traffic Directorate is 20160104026588 and date of birth is 18th July 1940 and his proxy is one Dabble Disi whose Registration number at the Road Traffic Directorate is 20150704157551 and
date of birth is 11th February 1981.
Our documents also show that the five vehicles were delivered to Zameer Karim on 31st July 2017 under order number 318712 and were fully paid for by Karim.
When news of the MK145 million surfaced, the DPP, which earlier denied the existence of the said account, argued that Mutharika never personally benefited from the transaction and the party was not aware of the source of the funds at the time.
Both government spokesperson Nicolas Dausi and Mutharika’s press secretary Mgeme Kalirani are yet to respond on the vehicle scam
