CMB directors to face irate creditors

Mbongeni Mguni | Friday November 2, 2018 15:02

 

A statutory manager appointed by the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) suspects the asset manager, under the guise of managing funds for the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) 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.

According to the statutory manager, CMB two directors, Tim Marsland and Rapula Okaile paid themselves P225,000 and P157,450 respectively as salaries monthly, while also pocketing P7.7 million and P5.2 million respectively between April and September last year. The two also had sole directorships of companies that billed and received payments from CMB amounting to P8 million last year.

Marsland owns 75% of CMB, while Okaile holds the balance, according to available documents. This week, it emerged that CMB liquidator, John Little plans to ask creditors whether they want Marsland and Okaile to appear in person to answer for the missing funds. Little met with creditors on Monday in Gaborone, in the first interaction since his appointment to liquidate the asset management firm.

“He stressed that creditors should think about this as a public interest matter as pensioners’ funds are at stake and questions have to be answered. He said it was important that the process be seen to answer the questions that the public has, over and above the creditors,” one of the attendees at Monday’s meeting told Mmegi.

It is understood Little said at the next creditors’ meeting, likely to be early next year, he would introduce a resolution asking creditors to vote on whether to have Marsland and Okaile stand before them.

“Sections of the Companies Act give the liquidator the power to bring the directors before the creditors to answer questions.

“CMB directors can be forced to attend a public enquiry and to answer under oath all questions,” sources close to the latest developments said.

Other creditors who spoke to Mmegi said they would be eager for the two directors to answer questions under oath, on the goings-on which resulted in losses of pensioners’ funds.

Okaile is understood to have attended Monday’s meeting, although he did not make any statement and left shortly into the discussions. Former CMB staff were also in attendance.

Meanwhile, Bona Life is due before the High Court today with an urgent application for the liquidation of CMB Fund 1, a CMB affiliated entity which reported housed P133 million in investments made by the asset manager on behalf of the life insurance company.

In an August report, statutory manager, Peter Collins said CMB Fund 1’s ownership had been transferred from CMB to Capital Management Africa in December 2016 to keep it out of the reach of insurance regulator, NBFIRA. Marsland appears to wholly own CMA.