BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—Business tycoon Zameer Karim of Pioneer Investments has been released on bail after spending a day behind bars following his arrest in connection to tax evasion.
Karim, who has proved to be a conduit for corrupt deals by the country’s greedy politicians, was arrested after blew a whistle to Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) over fake issuance of tax clearance certificate with a forged signature of MRA deputy director general Roza Mbilizi.
The bail conditions for Karim included a cash bond of K250 000, two sureties with K500 000 each not cash.
Karim is also answering charges in which Commissioner of Police Innocent Bottoman and Senior Superintendent Grant Kachingwe conspired to use public office for the advantage of him (Karim), trading as Pioneer Investments, to arbitrarily obtain K2.7 billion in food rations deal.
The trio was arrested in December 2018 following revelations of suspected dubious transactions in the food rations contract.
The case generated public interest and pressure from various civil society organisations and opposition political parties.
Initially, the three were charged with various offences such as theft and acquiring proceeds of crime amounting to K466 million.
But the ACB later amended the charges to include money laundering, conspiracy, influencing the use of public office and use of public office for one’s advantage contrary to Section 25 b (1) of the Corrupt Practices Act.
Following the arrests, MPS interdicted Bottoman and Kachingwe. Bottoman was accused of having unilaterally made an undertaking and commitment to CDH Investment Bank for Karim to access a loan.
The case also generated intense public interest after a leaked ACB investigation report showed that Karim deposited K145 million in a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) bank account at Standard Bank whose sole signatory was President Peter Mutharika.
The party denied wrong-doing or that it benefitted from an alleged corruption deal, but later, through spokesperson Nicholas Dausi, made an undertaking to refund Karim’s donation.
