Investigators recover half of pensioners’ missing P600m

The pension fund pumped out P477 million to Capital Management Botswana (CMB), while Bona Life, which relaunched recently, had directed P133 million to the asset manager for investment.

CMB, now under liquidation, was contracted by the BPOPF in 2014 to manage an initial P500 million investment mandate in private equity. The asset manager and the pension fund fell out in late 2017 with allegations of misappropriation, at which point CMB had reportedly been given P477 million to manage. The asset manager sent BPOPF P50 million back and said the amount was final fulfilment and settlement of its (CMB’s) obligations to the BPOPF under the terms of a “partnership agreement”.