6 ARRESTED FOR E20M CENTRAL BANK FRAUD

Businessman charged with $2,7 million fraud, money-laundering

BY CHARLES LAITON

HARARE businessman Arthur Chikukwa appeared before High Court judge Justice Tapiwa Chitapi yesterday facing fraud and money-laundering charges after he allegedly swindled prospective coal miners of over $2,7 million in a botched mining deal.

Chikukwa is alleged to have misrepresented to Salim Suleman Desai of Lightglass Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd, that he was selling his coal mining concession in Tuli, Matabeleland South province, held under Special Grant number 5341 in the name of Rockrabbit Investments (Pvt) Ltd.

Sometime between July 2014 and December 2015, the parties sealed the deal, culminating in Desai surrendering house number 30 Stonechat Lane, Borrowdale in Harare, a Toyota Prado (registration number ABR 4643), a Toyota Lexus (registration number ACD 5457) and $125 000 to Chikukwa.

"Whereas in truth and actual fact when Arthur Chikukwa made the misrepresentations, he well knew he had not obtained authority to sell the said Special Grant to Lightglass,” the State papers read.

In the alternative to the fraud charge, Chikukwa is being charged with "ceding or assigning any rights without authority from the President of Zimbabwe”.

In respect of the money-laundering charge, the State alleges during the same period, Chikukwa received, possessed, concealed and disposed of the two motor vehicles, cash and the residential stand well knowing or suspecting that at the time of receipt of such property that the said money and goods were proceeds of crime.

"That is to say, Arthur Chikukwa acquired, used or possessed property and money mentioned in the charge knowing that at the time of receipt that such amounts of money and property were proceeds of a crime of fraud.”

Chikukwa, who was not asked to plead to the charges, is expected to file his defence when the trial commences on August 16.

Ministry of Health official in Lukulu sent to jail for money laundering

Ministry of Health Registry Clerk of Lukulu District in Western Province has been convicted to five years imprisonment with hard labour for money laundering involving over K73, 000.

Mbangu Katutu, 39, a Registry Clerk under the Ministry of Health in Lukulu District was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission in May 2016 for abuse of authority of office, theft, money laundering and theft by public servant contrary to the Laws of Zambia.

Particulars of the offence were that Katutu Mbangu, a Registry Clerk and working as a Payroll End User at Lukulu District Medical Office, on dates unknown but between 1st December, 2014 and 31st March, 2016 whilst acting together with other persons unknown did without lawful authority introduce his wife Rachael Nakweti Simasiku on the Government payroll as a Registered Nurse when she was not actually an employee of the Ministry of Health.

This resulted in Government losing K73, 839.11 as salary paid to her.

Mbangu has since been convicted to 3 years, 2 years and 5 years respectively on charges of theft by public servant, fraudulent false accounting and money laundering.

He will, however, serve for 5 years to run concurrently.

And the Commission through its Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit has arrested a businessman of Chipata District for money laundering involving K200, 000.

Kelvin Mwanza, 30, a businessman of Chimwemwe Compound in Chipata District has been arrested for theft and money laundering involving K200, 000 contrary to the Laws of Zambia.

Particulars of the offence are that Mwanza jointly and whilst acting together with other persons unknown on dates unknown but between 1stFebruary, 2016 and 15th March, 2016 did steal K200, 000 by unlawfully and fraudulently transferring the said money from an account holder under a named bank to his own domiciled at the same bank.

Mwanza later withdrew this money over the counter and also via Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

He used part of the money to purchase a plot in Chipata's Mphando area.

Mwanza is currently in custody and will appear in the Chipata Magistrate Courts on 27th July, 2016.

Malawi Convicts 3 in Conspiracy to Kill Ex-budget Director

Lameck Masina, July 21, 2016 1:43 PM

BLANTYRE--

A court in Malawi on Thursday convicted a former justice minister and two others of conspiracy to murder a former Ministry of Finance budget director in 2013.

Raphael Kasambara was accused of conspiring to murder Paul Mphwiyo, while former Malawi Defense Force soldier Macdonald Kumwembe and businessperson Pika Manondo faced charges of attempting to murder and conspiring to murder.

FILE - Paul Mphwiyo, shown in July 2013, was shot in September 2013.

"After analyzing all the evidence in this case, I convict them accordingly,” ruled High Court Judge Michael Mtambo. "Bail for the three accused persons is hereby revoked and they should be remanded in custody."

As Kasambara was led into the police vehicle taking him to prison, he said the judgment was compromised and the defendants would appeal.

Cashgate exposed

The September 2013 shooting in Lilongwe exposed the corruption scandal known as Cashgate, in which more than 70 businesspeople and government officials were arrested.

Gunshot survivor Mphwiyo is facing charges in connection to the $32 million scandal. He was arrested in 2014 on charges of money laundering, theft and conspiracy to defeat course of justice. His wife was also charged with money laundering and theft.

Commentators believe Mphwiyo masterminded the Cashgate scandal, and his shooting was due to a deal gone bad between him and the three men convicted.

No date was set for sentencing.

Mahtani Caught Up in Panama Papers Tax Evasion Scandal

Evans Mulenga | July 15, 2016

The controversial Zambian businessman Rajan Mahtani is facing a potential new criminal investigation related to alleged tax evasion activities revealed by the whistleblower leaks of the so-called "Panama Papers” of law firm Mossack Fonseca.

According to tipsters based in London, Mahtani was spotted on Thursday, 14 July in Victoria Station on his way back from meeting with his lawyer Ashok Kumar Sancheti at Morgan Walker Solicitors LLP on Chancery Lane in Central London. The source indicates that Mahtani is in a panic to prepare a legal defence strategy following his implication in the Panama Papers ahead of a potential inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Mahtani's wholly owned subsidiary company Finsbury Investments Ltd. is listed among those companies listed in the Offshore Leaks Database of the Panama Papers provided by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The documents show that Finsbury was incorporated in Switzerland via an intermediary Semely Conseil & Gestion in 1996. This incorporation took place just a few years before he was tried and convicted on several counts of money laundering by the government of former President Frederick Chiluba.

Since the original release of the Panama Papers, prosecutors in a number of jurisdictions have indicated that they are preparing investigations into those parties known to be using shell corporations for unlawful activities of money laundering and tax evasion. Last April, U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, sent a letter to ICIJ announcing that his office has "opened a criminal investigation regarding matters to which the Panama Papers are relevant.” Similar intentions are underway at the UK's SFO.

Over the past 40 years, Mahtani has been caught breaking the law numerous times and has served time in prison on two separate occasions. Among the early scandals he was implicated in the Carlington maize corruption scheme, which involved the defrauding of a Canadian company through the Food Reserve Agency (FRA). A few years later, Mahtani engaged in another scheme through his company Furncoz, which had been given lucrative government contracts to provide schools desks and other equipment to hundreds of Zambian schools - however Furncoz absorbed the funds and failed to deliver the promised goods, declaring bankruptcy.

Later in his career as managing director of Finance Bank (which he has been forced into selling to Atlas Mara at a steep discount), Mahtani was further implicated a series of money laundering charges, leading to the closure of his bank and suspension of shareholder interests in both Malawi and Zambia.

Some of this criminal activity is coming back to haunt him as he used allegedly illegally offshore shells to funnel these stolen funds from Zambia abroad while avoiding tax payments. Now, with the Panama Papers exposing his vehicle, he is assembling a legal defence strategy from his base in London.

Mahtani's lawyer, Ashok Kumar Sancheti at Morgan Walker LLP, is not without his own controversy. He and his firm were sanctioned and shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for "dishonestly using client money.”

In a prosecution brought by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), it was also alleged that Mr Sancheti had breached a professional undertaking, failed to account for funds involved in that undertaking and failed to pay £135,000 of stamp duty on behalf of a client. In all, the SDT found ten allegations against Mr Sancheti proven, with four of them involving dishonesty.

http://zambiareports.com/2016/07/15/mahtani-caught-up-in-panama-papers-tax-evasion-scandal/

Horns of a Dilemma: Mozambique poaching enriching North Korea's leadership

• Don Pinnock
• 12 Jul 2016 11:19 (South Africa)

According to a study just released by Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, the country is incapable of disrupting the criminal syndicates that have turned it into a major trans-shipment point for rhino horn, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and dagga. The value of illegal drug trade in Mozambique, it claims, is probably greater than all foreign aid combined.

Global Initiative rhino investigator Julian Rademeyer found that the corruption permeating every level of the Mozambique state and the country's leaky ports, airports and borders made it a smuggler's paradise. Of great concern is what he describes as "dodgy diplomats”, particularly North Koreans, using this weakness to smuggle illicit products.

Once hailed as a post-civil war success story, Mozambique, he says, is a country in crisis, paralysed by rampant corruption, a weak judiciary, an ineffectual and criminally compromised police force, and powerful criminal syndicates with tentacles reaching into every level of the state.

Many of Mozambique's political elite, according to Global Initiative, have grown fat on the proceeds of the patronage networks that grew and festered for a decade under the country's former president, Armando Guebuza.

"His successor, Filipe Nyusi, is still grappling with Guebuza's toxic legacy and, more than a year since he took office, has yet to solidify control over the state and Frelimo, the ruling party.”

Added to Mozambique's problems is its role as a key regional money-laundering hub, a dramatic increase in kidnappings-for-ransom and a series of high profile assassinations that, among others, have claimed the lives of a judge, journalists and, most recently, a prosecutor.

"There is a very real sense of fear within the judiciary and government,” a diplomat based in Maputo told Global Initiative. "People don't want to rock the boat because they could be next.”

In May this year the country was also rocked by revelations that the government had tried to conceal close to $1.4-billion in hidden loans from donor countries and agencies. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the European Union (EU), African Development Bank, and several other donors suspended aid "pending a full disclosure and assessment of the facts”.

An IMF official said the concealment "is probably one of the largest cases of the provision of inaccurate data by a government the IMF has seen in an African country in recent times”. Mozambique is heavily dependent on foreign aid.

Conservationists in South Africa and Mozambique say they are encouraged by the work done by Mozambique's National Agency for Conservation Areas, but are frustrated by the lack of progress from the Mozambican police in apprehending key poaching and trafficking ringleaders.

"Policing is abysmal,” said a Mozambican conservationist. "There's enough evidence to arrest and prosecute. We know who the key figures are. They are very well known. Despite that, we are not able to arrest any of the poaching gang leaders.”

The Global Initiative report highlights the increasing role and impunity of North Korean diplomats in criminal activities in the southern African region. An example was the arrest, in Maputo in May 2015, of a North Korean diplomat and a Taekwon-Do instructor after 4.5kg of rhino horn and $100,000 was found in their vehicle. Police detained them and impounded the vehicle.

Within hours of learning of the incident, the North Korean ambassador to South Africa, Yong Man-ho, was on a flight from Johannesburg to Maputo. The diplomats were released after paying $30,000 and the vehicle was returned to them.

Diplomatic and government sources in South Africa have made similar claims, telling Global Initiative that the North Korean embassy in Pretoria is "actively involved in smuggling ivory and rhino horn” and may be linked to other illegal activities.

There are also allegations that the North Korean embassy in Addis Ababa is being used as a transit point for the smuggling of illicit wildlife products to China, with embassy officials abusing their diplomatic status to act as couriers.

Since the mid-1970s, North Korea's involvement in transnational organised crime - particularly drug and cigarette trafficking, weapons smuggling and the production of counterfeit US currency - has grown steadily, peaking during the severe economic crisis and famine the country faced in the early and mid-1990s.

North Korean embassy officials have been implicated in 16 of the 29 smuggling cases involving diplomats that Global Initiative identified in a variety of sources dating from 1986.

A 2007 assessment of illicit activity and smuggling networks concluded that "North Korea possesses sophisticated smuggling capabilities developed from years of transnational criminal activity, driven by economic necessity and justified with ideological veneer”. These illicit activities are said to be controlled by a shadowy agency known as Division 39.

The US described it as "a secretive branch of the government... that provides critical support to [the] North Korean leadership, in part through engaging in illicit economic activities, managing slush funds and generating revenues for the leadership”. In this North Korea's embassies appear to play a key role.

From the mid-1960 to the late 1990s, according to Global Initiative, Pyongyang poured military and financial resources into Africa, hoping to sway newly independent countries to recognise the North Korean leadership. Embassies were established across the continent but quickly became a financial burden.

After the country defaulted on its international debts in 1975, its embassies were required to "self-fund” their operations, a practice that continues to this day. "Diplomats are expected to earn enough money to supplement their paltry salaries and be able to make sizeable financial contributions to the central government in Pyongyang.” Some embassies even use their vehicles as a private taxi service.

According to Rademeyer, the need to self-fund is part of the reason Korean diplomats have been implicated in crimes ranging from diamond, gold, drug and gun smuggling to trafficking in counterfeit currency, cigarettes, medicines and electronics.

With seeming immunity from prosecution by African states, supporting organised crime seems to have become one of the primary preoccupations of North Korea's beleaguered embassies.

With most of the planet's rhinos in Kruger Park, which borders on Mozambique, the future of the species remains extremely tenuous unless South Africa and the world takes action to hold Maputo and North Korea to account.

Crimes that unhappen

When police stormed a house in Matola on the outskirts of the Mozambican capital, Maputo, on 12 May 2015, little did they expect to make the largest seizure of ivory and rhino horn in the country's history.

Packed into shipping crates and piled on the floor were 340 elephant tusks and 65 rhino horns. Together they weighed about 1.3 tonnes, representing the deaths of at least 170 elephants and more than 30 rhinos at the hands of poachers.

Fresh blood spatter and the rank smell of decay indicated that some of the horns were from recent kills. One of the occupants of the house, a Chinese national, was taken into custody. A day later, a second Chinese man was arrested when he offered police investigators a $34,000 bribe to drop the case.

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, praised the "highly significant seizure” and said it hoped the arrests would signal "a new chapter in Mozambique's history of wildlife trade law enforcement”. Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's rhino and elephant programme leader, said it was "now absolutely vital for a full and thorough investigation to be carried out”, adding that "the opportunity must not be squandered”.

But it was squandered. A dozen horns vanished within days of the raid, despite being under guard at the police's provincial command headquarters. They were replaced with crude replicas made from "bull horns”, according to some reports. The Chinese suspects were released on bail after promising to return to court in November. They disappeared without trace. DM

Photo: A file picture dated 19 February 2016 and made available by the official North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun via Yonhap News Agency (YNA), shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaking during a commendation ceremony for the scientists, technicians, workers and officials who contributed to the recent successful launch of a satellite, in Pyongyang, North Korea. EPA/RODONG SINMUN

Read More: http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-07-12-horns-of-a-dilemma-mozambique-poaching-enriching-north-koreas-leadership/#.V4X1s6KmrZ0

The Hague, the Netherlands

From 2010 to 2014, 2.2% of the estimated proceeds of crime were provisionally seized or frozen, and 1.1% of the criminal profits were finally confiscated at EU level, according to a recent report penned by Europol's Asset Recovery Unit, in cooperation with the Asset Recovery Offices of EU Member States.

This report, the first of its kind, shows that the amount of money currently being recovered in the EU is only a small proportion of estimated criminal proceeds: 98.9% of estimated criminal profits are not confiscated and remain at the disposal of criminals. That means that around 50% of all provisionally seized/frozen assets are ultimately confiscated.

This study also estimates that the annual value of provisionally seized/frozen assets in the EU is around EUR 2.4 billion, with about EUR 1.2 billion finally confiscated each year at EU level.

Cross-border cooperation between law enforcement agencies and Europol to trace and identify criminal assets has significantly improved in recent years, with more than 1000 asset recovery investigations being carried out within the EU in 2015.

Despite this increase and more effective cooperation, the final results in terms of confiscations are still modest, clearly showing that more work needs to be done, for example:

• Strengthening of financial investigations at national level, in particular in relation to organised crime activities;
• Increased investment in resources and training;
• Collection of statistical information at central level, digitalisation of confiscation orders, creation of a register for seized/frozen/confiscated assets with information on location and value, to enhance tracing of assets in foreign countries;
• Collection of information on court decisions.

Nevertheless, EU Member States have shown a growing interest in identifying and quantifying the amount of seized and confiscated assets at the EU level, although it is challenging to give such a comprehensive picture, mainly due to the differences in the organisation and structure of the EU national agencies and between national legislations.

Read the whole document attached below.

Cashgate convict Savala gets 7 years

27 June 2016

Caroline Savala who used to sell lipstick but made it big through cashgate has been sentenced to seven years in prison for her role in the plunder of public funds.

Savala: jailed for seven years

The cashgate convict was found guilty of theft and money laundering on 17th July, 2015.

On Monday at the High court in Lilongwe, Savala who stole K85 million in the cashgate syndicate was left to stand alone in the absence of her lawyer but appeared composed giving the impression she was ready for the outcome of the day.

Defence counsel Ralph Kasambara was absent from the court at a time when he must have been needed most. Kasambara gave no reason for his absence but Judge Fiona Mwale described the non-appearance as a sign he was not interested in defending the convict.

According to Mwale, the defence failed to honour the 48 hours given by the court to present their mitigating factors.

"The factors which were given later were also found to be weak and lacking integrity,” said judge Mwale.

The judge proceeded by describing Savala as a trickster saying the convict hastily registered a construction company with the purpose of stealing from the government considering that her initial business was a small enterprise; selling lipsticks.

In his remarks, cashgate Special prosecutor Kamudoni Nyasulu said as the state is satisfied with the sentence considering the gravity of the case and revealed that they intend to recover some of the money from her assets being kept by another cashgate mega thief Leornard Kalonga and accomplice Florence Chatuwa.

Savala, 33, will serve 3 years for theft and 7 years for money laundering. The sentences will run concurrently meaning she will spend 7 years in jail.

Read More: https://malawi24.com/2016/06/27/cashgate-convict-savala-gets-7-years/

ZIMBABWE has become a haven for dodgy and corrupt companies amid revelations that China Jiangsu International Economic and Technical Co-operation (CJI), a firm contracted by government to undertake the refurbishment and expansion of the Harare International and Victoria Falls airports, was blacklisted by the World Bank and African Development Bank for fraud and corruption.

Transport minister - Joram Gumbo

The company, which is eyeing a number of construction projects, is part of several dubious companies operating in the country.

Another Chinese company, China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC), which was awarded a tender for the dualisation of the US$2 billion Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu highway, was also blacklisted by the World Bank for fraud and corruption.

The revelations come at a time there is controversy over the country's energy deals, which were inflated by more than US$500 million, raising suspicions that Zesa senior managers and top government officials could have corruptly benefitted through the price escalations.

Some projects were awarded to shady businesspeople, including the US$200 million 100 megawatt Gwanda Solar Project, which was given to Wicknell Chivayo's Intratek despite losing out on the original tender.

Chivayo is a convicted fraudster and his partner, Ibrahim Sildky Yusuf, a Zambian based in South Africa, has a well-documented history of drug trafficking, money laundering and theft by fraudulent means. Yusuf is founder and executive chairman of the Intratek Group of companies, which owns Intratek Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd where Chivayo is listed variously as "managing director”, "director” and "representative”.

An investigation by our sister paper in South Africa Mail&Guardian, revealed Yusuf was "linked to a Zambian mandrax smuggling network in the mid-1980s and named in a 1985 Zambian court judgment”.

The paper also received a document on Yusuf prepared by the Zambian Drug Enforcement Commission, which confirmed that that he had been arrested in July 1989 in connection with the unlawful importation of vehicles and trafficking in mandrax and again in December 1997 in connection with money-laundering and illegally importing vehicles.

Documents from the World Bank seen by the Independent this week show that CJI was blacklisted by the Bretton Woods institution from February 14 2014 to February 13 2017. The company was blacklisted for submitting false information to the bank when it bid for a construction contract for the Ethiopia Irrigation and Drainage Project.

"The specific accusations made by the bank's integrity vice-presidency (INT) in the SAE were that the respondent (a) submitted a false corporate experience claim in a pre-qualification application for a construction contract and in a later bid for that contract; and (b) submitted false personnel experience claims in two bids for that contract,” the World Bank stated in its 2013 document titled Sanctions Case No. 294.

The document was signed by Pascale Helene Dubois, the chief suspension and debarment officer at the World Bank.

The bank consequently recommended that CJI be declared ineligible to be awarded or to benefit from a "bank-financed contract and to be a nominated sub-contractor, consultant, manufacturer or supplier, or service provider of an otherwise eligible firm being awarded a (World) Bank-financed contract”.

"CJI be declared ineligible to receive the proceeds of any loan made by the bank or otherwise to participate further in the preparation or implementation of any project or programme financed by the bank and governed by the bank's procurement guidelines, consultant guidelines or anti-corruption guidelines; provided, however, that after a minimum period of ineligibility of three years.”

The bank further stated that it reached its decision after taking into account that CJI engaged in a "repeated pattern of misconduct by submitting fraudulent documentation”.

The bank, however, noted that CJI had agreed to meet the bank officials and acknowledged that the fraudulent practices had occurred.

The sanctions are also supposed to be enforced by other multilateral development banks (MDBs), including the African Development Bank Group, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Inter-American Development Bank Group.

Last month, CJI said it was nearing the completion of the expansion project of Victoria Falls International Airport with preferential loans provided by the Chinese government.

"Currently, 97% of the total work has been completed, including the construction of runway, terminal, control tower, parking apron, light navigation, communication system and other facilities.

"On December 1 2015, it was put into service by the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and has been highly spoken of by all sectors of society in Zimbabwe,” CJI stated in an interview in China with the state media.

"Guided by the principles of President Xi Jinping's visit to Zimbabwe and the Johannesburg summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, we will increase input in the infrastructure of Zimbabwe and expand our co-operation and try to launch projects in the mode of BOT (Build Operate and Transfer) or PPP (Public-Private Partnership) when Zimbabwe faces financial problems.”

On Wednesday, Transport minister Joram Gumbo said he was unaware of the CJI blacklisting, adding they won their contracts before he became minister.

"I know nothing about that because l had not been appointed minister then,” Gumbo said.

ASSET RECOVERY INTER-AGENCY NETWORK SOUTHERN AFRICA (ARINSA) ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2016

The ARINSA AGM for 2016 was held in Pretoria, South Africa, from 7 to 8 June 2016.

The AGM was attended by well over 60 delegates from 18 countries. The ARINSA countries were well represented and joined by observer countries including, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Angola and Mozambique. The President of the ARIN-WA, Mr. Samuel Essel was also in attendance representing West Africa. Many embassies and High Commissions in Pretoria were in attendance, including France, United Kingdom, United States and The Netherlands. This was the first multi-lingual ARINSA Annual General Meeting with interpretation being provided in English, French and Portuguese.

The Regional Representative for UNODC, Ms Zhuldyz Akisheva and Adv. Nomvula Mokgatla, Head of the South African Asset Forfeiture Unit, gave opening addresses, giving valuable insights into their AFU experience, including the need for regional cooperation, effective administration and investigation of cases, and to ensure that forfeiture orders were ultimately fulfilled.

The ARINSA's website, as a tool for exchanging and sharing of information on money laundering and proceeds of crime, has increased in popularity and relevance to registered members as was illustrated by Kudzai Chinoda and Gerrit Botha. It was reported that there were now over 460 members of the ARINSA community. The membership being drawn from the judiciary, prosecutors and law enforcement in the region and internationally. It was reported that since its launch on 2 July 2015, the web-site has been visited over 70,000 times.

ARINSA member countries made presentations on money laundering and asset forfeiture cases in the region. It was notable that there has been a significant increase in the number of cases prosecuted and the amount and value of the assets seized or confiscated.

The special theme for this AGM was taking the proceeds from wildlife crime. Presentations were made by the following experts:

Nick Ahlers from the wildlife trade monitoring network, TRAFFIC, - the global picture

Julian Rademeyer from the South African Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime - The problem in South Africa with emphasis on Rhino poaching

JP Willemse from the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the National Prosecuting Authority in South Africa - the money laundering typologies for wildlife trafficking.

The presentations covered the global, regional and national impact of wildlife and environmental crimes, especially rhino poaching and the emerging typologies. The overall picture emerging was of immense pressure on the populations of Africa's wildlife, marine life and timber. It was also significant that huge sums are being made by criminals by exploitingthis illicit trade.

Tom Hansen, a consultant with UNODC gave his insights into how to develop national strategies on taking the proceeds from crime.

The Secretariat reported on the Steering Committee Meeting. The AGM was informed of the Steering committee decision to accept Seychelles as a member of ARINSA.

The Secretariat also reported on the election of the presidency of Botswana represented by Mpho Letsoalo, of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime. Botswana will hold the presidency for the next two years.

CONCLUSION

This year's AGM confirmed the progress that is being made by ARINSA countries in taking the proceeds from crime. It was also refreshing to see the interest from so many countries outside of the network and the international community.

You can go to view and download pictures under the ARINSA GALLERY  - AGM 2016 including the presentations under ARINSA COMMUNITY platform under AGM 2016.