Staff Reporter
THE bail application of Coenraad Botha and his wife Charlotte Murove continued in the Windhoek Magistrate Court on Monday, 25 March 2024. Botha and Murove are charged with 64 counts in connection with an alleged illegal investment scheme involving some N$163 million.
In the proceedings, Botha said that he would not flee the country if given bail, as it is too expensive and that his close family, which includes four children in Swakopmund, resides in Namibia. Botha and his wife, Murove, represented by Sisa Namandje, were cross-examined by State Prosecutor Itula, unpacking the complex cryptocurrency operations.
In response to assertions made by Botha that he would not flee the country, the State Prosecutor referred Botha to the Fishrot case, in which the lawyer in that matter, Maren De Klerk, with dual citizenship, escaped to South Africa.
The prosecutor explained that although there is an extradition agreement between the two countries, currently Namibia is unable to get De Klerk back. To this, Botha, however, said that he is not aware of the Fishrot case or De Klerk, but that the investigations by the Bank of Namibia into CBI have been going on for two years, and in those two years, he and his wife have left the country on numerous occasions and come back.
Touching on business operations, Botha explained that he has one company in Estonia which was never operational and two in El Salvador which are still going through the process of fulfilling legal requirements; as such, the bank accounts are not operational. He added that since 2018, he tried to get a country with a friendly regulatory framework in terms of cryptocurrency and ended up in Namibia. He explained that the CBI started as a Stokvel in South Africa by a closed pool of people and that it was later registered as an Association. However, in October 2021, Standard Bank closed all accounts relating to his business and that a letter written on 23 November 2021 indicated to clients the closing of offices and bank accounts in South Africa.
Furthermore, Botha was questioned by the state prosecutor whether or not he is, in terms of section 7 of the Virtual Assets Act, is a licensed virtual assets provider, to which Botha said that on 14 March 2022, he was issued with a letter by the Financial Intelligence Centre as a vast service provider. He added that CBI worked with the Ministry of Finance which submitted the application on their behalf. The State Prosecutor, however, again asked Botha if he is registered under the Virtual Assets Act or is licensed, to which he said no.
Botha further dismissed witness statements that CBI Exchange Namibia was hacked and added that only the Fantom cross-chain was hacked. He explained that CBI only received payments for the purchase of cryptocurrencies from the public and never operated investments and could not move any alleged investments. He added that once a client bought the crypto, as an owner of a crypto wallet, they could decide what to do with the wallet. H
The state prosecutor further delved into the Bank of Namibia’s dealings with CBI exchange Namibia and added that in October 2019, the Bank of Namibia received an inquiry from a member of the public questioning it on CBI Namibia and Uhuru Pty Ltd, and whether they were compliant with Namibian laws.
The State Prosecutor added that in a letter dated 31 August 2020, Afrika Jantjies, a lawyer on behalf of CBI exchange, told the central bank that CBI is not registered in Namibia and did not at the time have the intention to register in Namibia. However, on 30 June 2021, the CBI Exchange Namibia Ltd Pty entity was registered.
“At the time you engaged with BoN you told BoN that you had no intention to register a business in Namibia. There was a misrepresentation as the accused received payments from the Namibian public for the purchasing of crypto. The issue I have is with the representation made by Jantjies, that CBI will not register in Namibia but then started making money from the Namibian public. You knew you would open a bank account in which Namibians would put money,” the state prosecutor said.
To this, Botha, however, said that nobody knows what they will do in six to nine months.
“What I can say is that we applied, we worked with BoN. During the investigation period, I left Namibia and came back every time. We moved here when we heard of the sandbox environment created by BoN after being informed of the initiative by Ally Angula,” Botha explained.
He shared that this sandbox environment relates to fintech innovation initiative by BoN for aspiring fintech startups and fosters innovations.
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