CMB's Marsland approaches a year behind bars
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday June 19, 2020 15:58
CMB, an asset management firm now under liquidation, was contracted by the Botswana Public Officers Pensions Fund (BPOPF) in 2014 to manage an initial P500 million investment mandate in private, unlisted equity.
The asset manager and the pension fund fell out late 2017 following allegations of misappropriation, at which point CMB had reportedly been given P477 million to manage.
The asset manager triggered a clause in the contract which it said allowed it to boot the BPOPF out of the arrangement, giving the pension fund only P50 million back for it (the BPOPF’s) interest in the deal.
Marsland was reportedly taken into custody from his home on the outskirts of Johannesburg last July by South African law enforcement, acting on a complaint laid by the pension fund and the local Directorate on Public Prosecutions (DPP). This week, legal sources close to the matter told Mmegi the asset manager had failed in another bid to secure bail on May 28.
“He has made several attempts but is yet to be successful,” one insider said.
“He is facing charges from the South African authorities as well, besides the proceedings for which Botswana wants to extradite him.”
Authorities want Marsland to answer questions on the suspected misappropriation of the millions from the pension fund.
CMB executives have previously said they are the victims of “character assassination, defamation, fraud, negligence, and cover up after cover up after cover up,” perpetuated by “some of Botswana’s most powerful executives,” in an effort to “prevent the exposure of wholesale negligence”.
At the beginning of the dispute with CMB, the BPOPF sued and lost at the High Court, before the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority, acting on BPOPF complaints, successfully placed CMB under statutory management via a Court of Appeal judgement last year.
Besides the criminal investigation, Marsland and his local partner are also facing civil proceedings against them by creditors of the liquidated asset manager. On July 6, creditors meet in the fourth and final hearing where Marsland’s local partner, Rapula Okaile will face questions by lawyers representing the liquidator and creditors.
Of the funds allegedly owed to pensioners, at least P150 million, representing a stake in Wilderness Holdings, was handed back to the BPOPF last year during a period of CMB’s statutory management.
Another P50 million invested by CMB in Cell City is reportedly being paid off on a monthly basis by the cellphone company to the liquidator.
Marsland has reportedly stayed out of Botswana since the pension fund saga exploded in late 2017. He was allegedly issued with a subpoena to appear before creditors, but his arrest complicated matters.
According to South African law, extradition hearings are not about guilt or innocence, but rather the requisitioning party putting forward sufficient evidence to remove a citizen to a foreign state.
Marsland’s defence is allegedly that all the funds in question are traceable and that he has no case to answer in Botswana.
By South African law, the Justice Minister has the final say on whether extradition can occur.