Morupisi charged with 3 counts in CMB saga
Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday August 30, 2019 15:00
Mmegi is informed that Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime agents served Morupisi at his office this morning, after securing clearance from President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Morupisi’s wife, Pinny, was reportedly served with charges on Wednesday, in relation to a Land Cruiser allegedly registered under her name and bought from proceeds CMB received from the pension fund.
Authoritative sources told Mmegi this afternoon that the PSP had been charged with money laundering, bribery and abuse of office. His wife’s charges are unclear, but are said to be “several”.
The PSP is due to appear before a Magistrate Court on Tuesday.
“He was served this morning with the charges and the court order to appear.
“The charges are in connection with the CMB matter,” a highly placed insider close to the matter told Mmegi.
Morupisi was unwilling to comment when reached this afternoon. Mmegi had wanted to confirm with him whether he had been served and whether he would be resigning his position in light of the alleged charges.
“I do not want to comment about that,” he said.
Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration minister, Nonofo Molefhi said he was unaware of the latest developments.
“As for suspension, only the President can do that because he is the one who appointed him,” Molefhi said.
It is understood the DCEC is finalising charges against Tim Marsland and Rapula Okaile, CMB’s directors, for their alleged role in the misappropriation of funds belonging to the pension fund. Marsland has been in custody in South Africa for more than a month, fighting against his extradition to Botswana, while Okaile recently appeared in court charged with a different offence involving funds from Botswana Insurance Fund Management (BIFM). Okaile and Marsland were charged with attempting to obtain by false pretence an amount of P80.5 million from BIFM.
CMB was contracted by the BPOPF in 2014 to manage an initial P500 million investment mandate in private, unlisted equity.
The asset manager and the pension fund fell out in late 2017 with allegations of misappropriation, at which point CMB had reportedly being given P477 million to manage. CMB returned P50 million to the pension fund and retained the balance, citing a clause in the contract.
Morupisi’s who was BPOPF chair until 2018, has regularly been named in the CMB matter, with allegations that he materially benefited from some of the transactions now being investigated.