Moagi, the alleged classic laundering techniques
Spira Tlhankane | Monday January 12, 2026 06:00
At the centre of the allegations is a seemingly ordinary purchase of cattle, but according to Principal Anti-Corruption Officer Tendani Christinah Setume of the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), the transaction was anything but ordinary. Setume reveals in her sworn affidavit that this was not a straightforward commercial purchase. Her affidavit alleges that it was a transaction characterised by third-party payments, false identities, cash deposits, and a later attempt to re-characterise the payments as a loan.
A minister, a tender and a favour asked
Setume states that the story begins in November 2019, when Moagi was appointed to the Cabinet. As minister, he exercised political oversight over Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), a parastatal responsible for electricity generation and transmission, and one that regularly issued high-value tenders. Between 2021 and 2023, Sieyuan Electric Botswana (Pty) Ltd, a Chinese-linked engineering company, secured multiple BPC contracts, including the Ramotswa grid strengthening project, the Government Enclave substation upgrade, the Sua Pan Substation relocation, and the Phase 2 North-West Transmission Grid connection.
“BPC fell directly under Moagi’s ministerial portfolio,” Setume noted, adding that senior ministry officials and the minister himself were consulted on strategic energy projects tied to these tenders. It is against this backdrop, Setume says, that Moagi allegedly approached Lin Weidong, Sieyuan’s Commercial Manager, asking him to pay for the purchase of 100 heifers and a bull for Moagi’s personal benefit. According to the affidavit, Lin Weidong was uneasy because the Sieyuan policy did not allow such payments, and the request raised obvious conflict-of-interest concerns. “To bypass company policy and avoid direct linkage to Sieyuan and the fact that they did not want to disappoint Moagi, Lin Weidong and Yan Jun, the Regional Manager, approached a friend, Lin Han, to make the payment,” Setume added.
On 30 August 2024, according to the investigations, Lin Han transferred P117,500 into the bank account of farmer Hermanus Potgieter. The payment covered the bull and part of the heifer purchase. The remaining P300,000, investigators allege, was deposited in cash by Lin Weidong himself while posing as a man named Jeremy Holiday, purportedly using a foreign passport.
“I have not been able to locate Holiday in the immigration movement control system. He does not appear to exist,” Setume stated in the affidavit. Furthermore, according to the investigators, the 97 heifers and a bull after losses were delivered and eventually transported to Moagi’s area at Sojwe/Lephephe. On paper, the buyer was Moagi, and in reality, investigators say, the money trail led elsewhere. Setume said that the payments did not originate from Moagi but originated from individuals linked to a company that had ongoing and prospective contracts with a parastatal under his control. To investigators, this separation between beneficiary and payer is a classic laundering technique which distances the public official from the source of funds while ensuring he enjoys the benefit.
Paying back the front man
The laundering trail did not end with the purchase, but Setume reveals that Lin Weidong later reimbursed Lin Han the P117, 500 through a Chinese bank account, effectively making Weidong the true source of the full P417, 500, while Lin Han served as a temporary conduit. Setume states that this according to their investigations demonstrated that Lin Han was used to mask the true payer. “My investigations have also revealed that Lin Weng Dong paid back Han his P 117 500.00 through his Chinese bank account. Of note is the fact that months after the cattle were bought, sometime in 2025, there was an attempt to cover up the whole deal and turn the payment for the 100 cattle into a loan. I aver that there was no reason for that to happen unless the parties concerned were fearful of the truth behind the transaction. This was a clear case of corruption and money laundering at the very least,” she further stated in the affidavit.
The loan that came too late
Months later, in 2025, with Moagi no longer a minister and rumours of asset investigations circulating, the story allegedly shifted. According to Setume, Lin Han, Lin Weidong and Yan Jun became concerned that the cattle transaction would attract scrutiny. They allegedly decided to “sanitise” the transaction. Setume avers that the parties resolved to demand repayment and make it appear that the money was a loan. According to Setume, a soft loan agreement for P417,500 was drafted and backdated to August 2024, falsely portraying Moagi as having borrowed the money from Lin Han. During a search of Moagi’s residence in June 2025, investigators found a copy of this agreement. “Sometime in 2025, Moagi called Lin Weng Dong, Han Li and Yan Jun to his residential place in Ramotswa, where he told Lin Han to sign a soft loan agreement for P417,500. This was despite the fact that Han had paid only P117, 500.00 and the other P300,000.00 was paid by Weidong. The loan agreement was back-dated to August 2024,” Setume stated. Setume indicates that there was no reason to re-characterise the payment as a loan unless the parties were fearful of the truth behind the transaction.
Following the money back to Moagi
To investigators, every layer of the transaction ultimately collapses back onto one beneficiary, Moagi. The investigators are confident that the cattle were purchased for Moagi because they were delivered to locations associated with him. The contents of the affidavit allege that Moagi paid transport costs and received refunds for undelivered livestock; therefore, the benefit accrued to him alone. In Setume’s assessment, the movement of money from Sieyuan-linked executives, to a friend, to a farmer, then disguised through cash deposits, false identities and a backdated loan amounts to more than impropriety. “This conduct constitutes corruption, possession of unexplained property and money laundering,” she concludes, citing the Corruption and Economic Crime Act and the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime Act. Investigators emphasise that the cattle transaction is not an isolated curiosity but part of a broader inquiry into unexplained wealth accumulated while Moagi held high public office. “The case is of national importance. At the time of acquiring the benefits referred to herein, he was Minister responsible for Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security. This was a position of immense public trust. It was, further, a position that rendered him a politically exposed person or politically influential person,” Setume highlighted.
A civil forfeiture order was granted late last year, allowing the state to seize Moagi’s property, believed to be connected to criminal activity. These included cattle, a bull, and money amounting to P2.8 million held at Bank Gaborone in a Bank account in the names of Wisecreatives Investments (Pty) Ltd. The Receiver has now taken full possession, control and custody of the property pending investigations and/ or institution and finalisation of proceedings for a civil penalty order and civil forfeiture order or any other orders as may be available to the applicant under the Proceeds and Instruments of Crime Act.
As the case continues in court, the affidavit paints a picture of money that never moved in a straight line but only in circles, until it landed where investigators say it was always meant to end up, with Moagi himself.