ACB to prosecute lawyer Mbeta on alleged bribery charges
Blantyre-based private practice lawyer Frank Mbeta will be in the dock as accused person to face prosecution for his alleged bribery charges dating back to 2015, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has disclosed.
ACB director general Reyneck Matemba said in a sworn affidavit on February 9 2015, that the bureau received a complaint from the then MRA commissioner general Raphael Kamoto that Mbeta had offered a Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) information and communications technology (ICT) security manager Wilson Upindi K2 million to delete information from three computers seized from a suspect on tax evasion charges.
Upindi alerted his boss, director of ICT at MRA, Maxwell Mlomba, who took custody of the computers and advised him to meet Mbeta and accept the K2 million which he collected in a black plastic bag at Chichiri Shopping Centre in Blantyre and handed over to his bosses.
However when the graft-busting body wanted to arrest the lawyer at the time, he obtained an injunction at Zomba Magistrate’s Court stopping ACB from effecting the arrest and also a subsequent order for judicial review on the matter.
ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala has since disclosed that through a consent order, the court directed that the bureau should not arrest Mbeta but commence the case against him through summons.
Said Ndala: “The injunction that Mr Frank Mbeta obtained against the ACB stopping his arrest and prosecution, is no longer there.”
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) also granted the bureau consent to prosecute the matter, she said.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
“and handed over to his bosses”. Nde ACB how did you come to know all this?
I stopped respecting lawyers way back. Its not a profession that I would encourage my son to join any more. All factors constant, most of these buddies will remain nobodies in Malawi. The market is flooded and there are no customers. We should expect the worst from these kangaroos
Komatu koma 2015. Munali kuti nthawi yonseyi. Mupezeka kuti mulibe umbonitu inu. Speedy trials are a solution ACB. We r tired with these 20yr trials.
Frank Mbeta is a big disgrace to the Malawi legal profession. Not very competent professionally, but very good at “delivering” thru bribery and corruption. This man, together with Lusungu Gondwe, have really messed up the image of the law profession in this country.
Compared to ralph kasambara or these judges, I would say mbeta is innocent. These lawyers and judges do that kind of stuff, that’s when you see the judge ruling that defendant so and so has no case to answer.
Most of these judges n lawyers are rich because of bribes, most of them have property portfolio worth more than nico or mpico plc.
Koma alipo lawyer kapena judge kaya ndi magistrate,nkukhala osagwamo Mutchisi otelewu.
Trying to find a corrupt-free and honest lawyer in this country is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Very rotten profession contrary to what they preach.
Wonder what was on the computers and if MRA has collected back taxes. It is cases such as these that take more than 5 years to resolve that people have no confidence in the ACB.
2015? …..The Director of Public Prosecution DPP, the Director General ACB, Director General FIA, ……..[..real Malawians…]
He should face the law arm of government
I hear he is the richest lawyer in Malawi through dubious means
So most lawyers are