The High Court (Commercial Division) judge Ken Manda has issued an order to unfreeze accounts for a South African fugitive, Willie Steenkamp who arrived in the country as an investor using the name Dr. William Bilderberg.
This means that he will have access to his accounts held at Ecobank Malawi with US$20 million (approx. K24 billion) frozen on suspicion of money laundering.
Bilderberg and his partner Jacobus Johannes Christoffel Du Toit, who is currently on the run, are wanted in South Africa for defrauding potential investors through an investment company.
He was arrested in 2022 after the Malawi Police Fiscal and Fraud Department conducted an operation jointly with the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA), Interpol, and Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services following an Interpol alert.
He was later released on a controversial by the Principal Resident Magistrate Court, after the State dropped a money laundering charge, a move which the chief resident magistrate Chisomo Msokera described as resembling “match-fixing”.
Manda said Ecobank Malawi where the account was frozen should allow Bilderberg and his company to access the accounts with ‘immediate effect since there is nothing legally preventing them from doing so’.
The Judge said the claimants (Bilderberg Limited and Dr William Bilderberg) requested the court to lift its order suspending operation of an order of Mandatory Injunction which he had granted to them to allow them access funds in their accounts held at Ecobank Malawi following a ‘verbal’ Freezing Order by the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA).
He noted that FIA eventually presented a formal Freezing Order and also got a Preservation Order on the accounts more especially because William Bilderberg was facing money laundering charges.
He said the Preservation Order was for 90 days and expired on 6 February 2024.
“In conclusion, the Preservation Order having expired by effluxion of time, there is no legal basis for the defendant to keep denying the claimants access to their accounts. In fact, I must state that there was no point for these proceedings. However, since the matter came before me and there was a hearing, I must make a pronouncement. My pronouncement is that the claimants be given access to their accounts with immediate effect as there is nothing legally preventing them from doing so. The defendant is thus ordered to unfreeze the accounts,” said Justice Manda.
Meanwhile, the High Court has moved itself to review a controversial bail granted to Bilderberg.
High Court judge Anneline Kanthambi informed the State and Defense during the bail ruling review in Blantyre this week that the court took the initiative for the action.
Defense lawyer Shepher Mumba asked for 21 days to prepare for the review saying they were caught unawares with the action and had not time to prepare.
Justice Kanthambi adjourned the matter to February 27 this month to proceed with the review.
In earlier attempts, Msokera rejected the application while condemning the State and Steenkamp’s lawyers for trying to undermine justice, before recusing himself from the case.
“We must emphasize that public confidence in the authority of the court is undermined where the court is made to rubberstamp illogical decisions that do not reconcile with the law and the facts.
“This is why we refuse to take part in such an exercise. We refuse to be a referee that is blind to the interests of justice.
“We cannot help but marvel at how both the applicant and the State have reasoned and concluded that the applicant (Bilderberg) has ceased to be a flight risk.
“Before we conclude, we must express our concern with the way this application has been handled by the bar. We do not think the bar is incompetent.
“We think that the bar is deliberately putting the interests of the applicant ahead of the interests of justice. This is contrary to the counsel’s duty to the court. And it is more worrying when the prosecution decides to participate in such approach to the administration of justice,” reads part of the ruling.
A sworn statement by his lawyer Felix Tambulasi indicated that Bilderberg (Steenkamp) was welcomed into the country in October in 2022 by government officials through the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) to invest in country as a Malawian.
It means Bilderberg (Steenkamp) was granted the citizenship and a local passport before he arrived in the country.
The sworn statement further said government later helped him establish his business, Bilderbert Company and later secure finances for the fugitive to start operating in Malawi.