The High Court in Blantyre has frozen a bank account belonging to Pioneer Investments, a company the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is investigating over a MK2.8 billion food rations contract with the Malawi Police Service.
Zameer Karim of Pioneer Investments is the second defendant in the case, which also has Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general Grezeldar Jeffrey and legal adviser Charles Mhango as first defendants and Innocent Bottoman as third defendant.
Youth and Society (Yas) are claimants in the case.
Yas Executive Director, Charles Kajoloweka, confirmed the development to The Daily Times that there is a freeze order.
“I can confirm that Youth and Society, through our legal team Ritz Attorneys-at-Law, has secured a court order at the High Court in Blantyre, freezing the bank account held by Pioneer Investments,” Kajoloweka said.
The order by Judge Jack N’riva, dated July 30 2018, was granted after Yas, through lawyer Bright Theu, made an application on July 24 2018.
“Until further order of the court, the second defendant by himself or by his officers or agents or anyone acting on his behalf must not remove, or in any way dispose of, deal with or diminish the funds standing to the credit of Pioneer Investments in an account number 0001 0006 87029 held with the second party cited to the extent of K1,500,000,000,” reads the order.
In the case, Standard Bank is the first party cited while National Bank is the second party cited. ACB Director General, Reyneck Matemba, is the third party cited while former secretary to the treasury, Ronald Mangani, is the fourth party cited.
“Until further order of the court, the second party cited should not transact any disposal, transfer, dissipation or howsoever termed the first defendants’ funds held in the account above. All parties should appear before the judge in the chamber on the 3rd day of August 2018 at 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon for an inter partes hearing on: i. the freezing order and the application for disclosure as against the parties cited,” the document reads.
It states that any person notified of the order who will assist breach of the order will be in contempt of court.
“This injunction does not prevent any bank from exercising any right of set off it may have in respect of any facility which it gave the respondent before it was notified of this order,” it adds.
Karim yesterday said he has not yet seen the order and he was out of Blantyre, where he resides.
Judge N’riva has also issued another freezing order against the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) account, which, according to investigations by ACB, received K145 million from Pioneer Investments. The account’s sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika.
The order, also dated July 30, reads: “Until further order of the court, the first defendants or their officers or agents or anyone acting on their behalf must not remove or in any way dispose of, deal with or diminish the funds standing to the credit of Pioneer Investments in an account maintained in the name of the Democratic Progressive Party with the first cited party or accounts held by the first defendants in the same name with the first cited party or accounts held by the first defendants in the same name with the first party cited either or both of them to the extent of the total sum of MK145,000,000.”
The freezing order against the DPP account is a modified version of the order, which went viral on social media over the weekend.
The order, which Kajoloweka could not be drawn to comment on, clearly indicated the account number on which Yas wanted the freezing order effected
