Fresh bid to haul CMB bosses before creditors
Mbongeni Mguni | Friday May 31, 2019 21:04
The directors, Tim Marsland and Rapula Okaile, ignored subpoenas to appear before creditors at the High Court in February, a move that saw the hearings attended by former CMB staffers.
Okaile held a 25% stake in CMB and Marsland the balance at the time the asset management firm went into liquidation.
The July hearings are part of the fact-finding provisions of the Companies Act and are to be held before the Master of the High Court in Gaborone.
The hearings are part of a multifaceted process to trace the funds, which also allegedly include a cross-border criminal investigation.
Ignoring the subpoenas carries criminal consequences, although Marsland, who resides in South Africa, can only be made to appear through extradition.
The hearings also carry legal weight, as statements are made under oath and thus legally actionable.
CMB’s new provisional liquidator, Kopanang Thekiso told BusinessWeek he would be preparing subpoenas for the hearings soon.
“We have not finalised the list, but we will soon and we will call the directors again because we need to have that record,” he said.
“The hearings are for those who were not able to attend the previous one.
“The creditors have the right to ask questions to whoever will be there.”
Last week, the CMB directors lost a High Court bid to overturn the firm’s liquidation, leaving them with fewer options in the long running legal battle around the pensioners’ funds.
A statutory manager appointed by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) last year published a report claiming CMB, under the guise of managing funds for the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund and Bona Life, lost hundreds of millions of pula through bad investments, alleged fraud and personal enrichment, via a complex web of directorships and shady entities. The two entities alone are collectively seeking the return of more than P550 million.
Other creditors include Lobatse Clay Works, Yarona FM, the Manual Workers Union, Grant Thornton, BIFM, Mascom, Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited and others who are collectively claiming more than P62 million.
The list of claims also includes First National Bank Botswana credit cards, bills from stationary providers, IT experts and the staff members who went for months without pay in the period towards CMB’s closure.