Reflections on historic NPF, CMB financial crimes
Kabo Ramasia | Monday March 3, 2025 10:12
Organised by the University of Botswana, the Colloquium for Judicial Officers on Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing held this week, proved just a perfect setting for national introspection of the anti-money laundering fight. Why not? After all, it gathered both male and female jurists in the same room, where financial intelligence experts, former spies and seasoned lawyers, law lecturers and public prosecutors from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and of course others.
As rare a moment as it was, the setting in one of Gaborone’s luxurious hotels situated in the Westgate Mall, was a true moment of introspection. From the speech made by President Duma Boko stressing the urgent need to curb corruption, his criticism of the ‘Butterfly’ case and misgivings eroded investor confidence to a former DPP prosecutor and former Director General of the Botswana Counter-Terrorism Analysis and Fusion Agency, Ernest Mosate stealing the show.
CMB looting
Mosate became the star of the show as he was presenting on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards, by laying the foundation that the former Permanent Secretary to the President (PSP), Carter Morupisi’s case was going to provide a litmus test as to whether the country’s sentences are effective. Morupisi, who was found guilty in all three counts of corruption and money laundering, was sentenced to a seven-year jail term by the Court of Appeal (CoA) in December 2024. The CoA reaffirmed its decision again recently when the same verdict was upheld after he had successfully reversed it. Mosate stated that the effectiveness of money laundering sentences is something that needs to be looked into.
He further highlighted that with such complex investigations, Botswana has crafted the best legal frameworks in the region relating to the confiscation of assets. He described them in two folds, being civil and criminal asset forfeiture.
According to Mosate, the CMB cases, which entailed the alleged P500 million fleecing of the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) with over P80 million, were taken to various countries. To this end, he described the Morupisi case as a “drop in the ocean” considering the magnitude of the entire scheme.
“When are we going to see them before the courts? It has been eight years, we need to see them,” Mosate urged.
The former DPP prosecutor wondered whether the investigation was closed and hinted at the need for its re-opening. He revealed that in the case of CMB, there was evidence that property was bought.
He further highlighted that in such scenarios there is always a high likelihood that the property would find its way back into the hands of the accused.
Mosate asserted that they needed Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) with Manor Squad, a company central to the CMB looting. He cautioned that dirty money can be moved at a very high speed. According to Mosate, it has thus proved difficult to bring CMB director, Tim Marsland, to book following delayed extradition requests. He said, at the time, they were told he was being extradited.
However, to date, despite losing his appeal, nothing is happening. Making recommendations, Mosate stated that asset recovery should lead to permanent deprivation of assets. Further, he advised that the fact that there is asset forfeiture should not replace prosecution. He argued that terrorism thrives on spilling blood and it may be started by enabling it through finances.
NPF case
There was the alleged raiding of the National Petroleum Fund (NPF) involving the who’s who of Botswana political elites. The case involved politicians, judges and asset managers in what came to be known as the ‘Bakang Seretse case’.
Despite the DPP having failed to successfully nail the alleged culprits, several NPF cases unfolded right from the Magistrates courts and high Courts right to the CoA.
Several charges were dropped against some accused by different courts.
However, Mosate maintained that the NPF was a grand corruption case, which had a lot of resistance. He narrated that in 2023 the CoA confirmed one of the judgments that indeed some of the property seized by the State were proceeds of crime. Against this background, the seasoned legal practitioner wondered whether the NPF criminal case should not be prosecuted.
“In terms of the evidence, we should be able to try for a prima facie case,” he said.
Nevertheless, the DPP disclosed that it is hampered by limited resources and loss of skilled human resources to greener pastures. The DPP further contended that the issue of corruption specialised courts was not fully effective. The DPP noted that it was still pursuing the NPF, stating and that the matter was long committed to the High Court for trial, and they were awaiting dates.
The NPF and CMB proved to be the straws that broke the camel’s back, rendering Botswana a money launderers’ paradise. The cases would result in the 2017 FAFT grey listing until legislative frameworks were passed to curb financial crimes.
The small sub-Saharan African nation of Botswana had grabbed world attention for its notoriety as a looter’s paradise.
But as the jurists unpacked these issues, it would emerge lessons were learnt on these scandalous cases. To this end, experts have called for policy consideration regarding money laundering and terrorism financing following the above-mentioned cases.