The seventh suspect arrested in the corruption scandal involving the missing US $50 million donated to Seychelles in 2002, appeared before the Supreme Court yesterday and was granted bail.
His bail sum has been set at R50,000.
The seventhsuspect was arrested on two alleged offences: corruption and money laundering.
It is alleged that the suspect was a signatory on the operating bank accounts and allegedly sent letters authorising funds to be transferred to various recipients from the Seychelles Marketing Board accounts. He was the Financial Controller at the time. The principal account involved was a new account set up by Mukesh Valabhji for the specific purpose of diverting funds and it appears that the suspect was instrumental in the diversion of funds from the Central Bank of Seychelles to this new account.
According to the lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACCS), “documents recovered showed that the suspect was not only the joint signatory but the author of the faxed authorisations to the banks. Following the receipts of the funds and the disbursal to the diverting account, it then appeared that funds were used to buy hotels from the COSPROH parastatal”.
The suspect provided an account during an interview under caution and stated “that his involvement was in effect of a government servant and he had no knowledge of the ultimate destination of the funds diverted”.
He also stated that documents appearing to have been authored by him were not and that he was simply presented with documents for him to sign.
It was ACCS and his lawyers themselves who argued that the suspect be released on bail as they stated he was being cooperative.
The conditions of the bail set by the court ordered the suspect not to leave the jurisdiction, to surrender passports and any other travel documents and to report to the Beau Vallon police station every day at 10am. The suspect must not interfere with ongoing investigations, not tamper with any evidence, nor be involved in any criminal activity.
The suspect will reappear before the Supreme Court on February 4, 2022 at 9.30am.
Source: Seychelles Nation