Shabbir Raidhan in Britain now, money laundering case in Malawi unresolved

• A house for sale in Lilongwe, a fresh start abroad — and unanswered questions about how a suspect under investigation was able to leave the country

There is a modest, red-roofed house in Lilongwe currently listed for sale. Its owner, according to reports, is no longer in the country — and has not been for some time.

Shabbir Raidhan left Malawi for Dubai in July, reportedly accompanied by his wife, Amina, and their daughter. He has now, according to reports, relocated again — this time to the United Kingdom, where recent images appear to show him in Leicester city centre.

The move marks the latest chapter in a case that has quietly unsettled Malawi’s financial regulators for the better part of a year.

Raidhan and his wife have been linked to allegations of large-scale foreign-exchange externalisation, with transactions reportedly totalling as much as MK5 billion a week passing through accounts connected to the couple.

Their florist business, La Fleur, in Lilongwe’s Area 6, has previously surfaced in reporting on the alleged scheme.

The Financial Intelligence Authority arrested the couple in December 2025, having gathered what investigators at the time considered sufficient evidence for prosecution.

The matter was registered at the Financial Crimes Division as Case No. 12 of 2025, before Judge Redson Kapindu.

The couple were later released — a development that, at the time, went largely unannounced.

By July, with the case still unresolved, the family had left for Dubai. Two months later, Raidhan appears to have moved on again, this time to Britain, as the family property back home is put up for sale.

What remains unclear is how a person under active investigation for suspected money laundering was able to leave Malawi at all — and whether any restrictions were ever placed on his movement.

Also unresolved: the current status of Case No. 12 of 2025, and whether any effort has been made to trace or freeze assets connected to the inquiry.

Neither the Financial Intelligence Authority nor the Malawi Police Service has publicly addressed the case’s current status.

In the meantime, the story of Raidhan’s departure — first to Dubai, then to the UK, with a property sale trailing behind him — has become something of a case study in the gap between an allegation and its resolution: how easily, when institutions move slowly, a person accused of significant financial wrongdoing can simply continue moving on.