BoB, DCEC, DIS, FIA implicated in fictitious bank account

The government of Botswana has remained tight-lipped following damning allegations against some of its key institutions.Bank of Botswana, Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) and Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) have been implicated by DCEC investigator, Jako Hubona of having known about a fictitious bank account opened at Stanbic Bank Botswana under the company name, Local Matter (Pty) Ltd, where Welheminah Maswabi, a DIS agent codenamed Butterfly is one of the Directors.Maswabi was being investigated for the alleged P100 billion, which was said to have been stolen from BoB. Former President, Ian Khama, former DIS boss, the late Isaac Kgosi and South African businesswoman, also Ambassador Bridget Motsepe were implicated in the case.Minister for State President Moeti Mohwasa has not responded to media enquiries about the allegations made by Hubona in the letter he wrote to the minister, in which he seeks protection and wants some of the DCEC top brass investigated for sabotaging the investigations into the stolen money.“When I first met with the Bank of Botswana Governor, we discussed the three areas of interest that the investigations were targeting in the bank to establish whether indeed funds were stolen.BOB Governor at the time, Mr Moses Pelaelo, pointed out that he does not have the authority to allow us access to those specific areas of interest, and only the President of the Republic was authorised by law to give us the green light.An arrangement was made to ask the President to authorise us to meet with fund managers in foreign jurisdictions, which was one of the key areas investigations targeted in the Bank”, Hubona said.He told the minister in the letter that the purpose was to interview them about the possibility of funds being stolen through Botswana’s investment portfolios. He said former President Mokgweetsi Masisi granted permission, BoB was to arrange with both fund managers and custodian banks for “us to meet with them.”He revealed that only nine fund managers and two custodian banks were interviewed in the USA and the UK, respectively.According to Hubona, upon their return, they were to meet with the BoB Governor to ask him to provide explanation regarding their preliminary findings, unfortunately, they learnt that during their absence, the BoB Governor had allegedly deposed an affidavit stating that no funds were missing.“We do not know who interviewed BoB and why, because we were the only team that was authorised to investigate the BoB allegation. If BoB was indeed approached by some people, who are not in the investigating team, to make him depose an affidavit, then that was interference with the investigations”, Hubona, who is the lead investigator in the matter, said.He added, “Furthermore, if indeed the BoB had deposed to an affidavit as alleged, the question that should be answered is whether BoB Governor had obtained authority to access the areas that it mentioned needed the President’s authority.If BoB did, where is such authority? Would it make sense for the state to authorise an investigating team to go and meet with its fund managers and, at the same time, issue authority to a different person to deal with the same matter without explanation? Where is the affidavit? Who asked the BOB to depose such an affidavit?”He pointed out that if the BoB Governor indeed agreed to depose an affidavit to persons who were not part of the investigating team, then it would not be surprising.This is allegedly because there are questionable documents involving the BoB Governor, such as a letter dated 22 August 2013, in which Stanbic Bank Botswana requests BoB to authorise the DIS to open a bank account using a fictitious name.“FIA made a covering letter on the 22nd August 2013 to Stanbic Bank, supporting the opening of a bank account using a fictitious name. A letter from DIS addressed to Stanbic Bank referenced: POL.F.3/4/1(Y) V (94), stamped Top secret and safe, confirming successful deposit of EUR 4,700,000.00 into Local Matter (Pty) Ltd account maintained at Stanbic Bank, in which “Butterfly” is one ofthe directors under fictitious names Lerato Hilton”, he revealed.According to Hubona, it is worth noting that Welheminah Mphoeng Maswabi, code-named “Butterfly”, applied for a passport number BN0379899 on the 27th June 2013 using the false names Lerato Hilton with a false identity number 126021313, specifically for use to register a company and open a bank account in which Stanbic Bank, DIS, BoB and FIA were involved, and this is suspicious.He said, “When my team was busy investigating the suspicious transaction of the money deposited into the Local Matter (Pty) Ltd account and a passport which was suspected to have been obtained fraudulently, DCEC conducted a parallel investigation to frustrate the efforts of our team and investigation into the passport matter and the bank transaction collapsed.Information from reliable sources indicates that DCEC officers who were tasked to do parallel investigations with my team to frustrate us met with Dr Abraham Sethibe, DG FIA, on the 20th January2020, and at the time, Mr Mathambo was the DG DCEC.”Hubona told the minister that his team comprised not only DCEC but also members of the Botswana Police Service (BPS), FIA, BURS and DIS. He indicated that during the investigation under Ass No: 508/2019, there was reasonable ground to believe that an offence under the National Security Act CAP 23:01 of Botswana Laws by Welheminah Mphoeng Maswabi, code-named Butterfly and or Lerato Hilton, had been committed.

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BoB, DCEC, DIS, FIA implicated in fictitious bank account