Court orders freeze of Pioneer Investment bank account: Fresh order on DPP account

The High Court in Blantyre has ordered Nation Bank of Malawi to freeze the account held by  Piooner Investment  (PI) Limited linked to K2.7 million Malawi  Police food ration scam following an application  by the Youth and Society (YAS)—on behalf of Malawians—that the company has a corruption case to answer.

The order has the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secretary general, Greizedar Jeffrey and the party as first defendants while  PI boss Zameer Karim Karim and Innocent Bottoman  of MPS are second and third defendants respectively.

Barely a fortnight ago, YAS, a non-governmental organization led by youthful activist, Charles Kajoloweka, also filed a similar order to have the DPP account in question frozen.

“This Order requires you personally and/or your officers, agents or anyone acting in your behalf to perform the acts set out in this Order. You should read it carefully. You have a right to ask the Court to vary or discharge this Order,” reads the Order.

According to the Order, dated July 30 and signed by Justice Jack N’riva, Karim and Pioneer Investment should not remove or in any way dispose or diminish funds in the company’s account number 0001 0006 87029 to the extent MWK1 500 000 000.00.

“All the parties concerned should appear before the Judge in chamber on the 3rd day of August 2018 at 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon for an inter partes hearing on: the freezing order and the application for disclosure as against the parties cited,” says the Order.

Adds the Order: “If this Order is disobeyed, you and/or any of your officers or agents may be found guilty of Contempt of Court and you or they may be sent to prison or fined or have you or their assets seized.”

The application was done, on behalf of YAS, by private practice lawyer Bright Theu of Ritz Attorneys in the commercial capital Blantyre.

Meanwhile, the court has  issued a fresh freexe order for governing DPP abnk account at Standard Bank whose sole signatory is President Peter Mutharika.

PI transferred K145 million from Police payment which State House has defended as a donation from a  well-wisher to a DPP  headquarters building project.

A fresh order for the freezing of the DPP account at Standard Bank was amde after it transpired that the first order  made on Friday had an error on the account number for the party.

The court development follows a leaked   Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB)investigation report which documented that [PI made an abortive interest claim of K466 million and deposited K145 million into the DPP bank account number 0140031992200 at Standard Bank.

YAS had demanded the DPP to pay back the money which represents proceeds of a fraudulent sham procurement .