THREE DENY STEALING SH1 BILLION FROM NATIONAL MICROFINANCE BANK

THREE people, including a former National Micro-Finance Bank (NMB) clerk Mtoro Midole, have denied furthering a criminal racket to steal over 1bn/- from the bank.

Midole and his co-accused persons, Daudi Kindamba and John Kikopa, both businessmen, were before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court in Dar es Salaam on Friday where Senior Resident Magistrate Hellen Riwa conducted preliminary hearing of the case.

During the session, the prosecution led by State Attorney Pius Hilla, gave particulars to show how the three accused persons committed the offences of conspiracy, money laundering, fraudulent accounting, stealing 1,029,454,383/64 and occasioning loss to the bank.

The three accused persons denied knowing each other as friends and that they never made any illegal transactions and spending some of the money alleged to have been stolen to building some houses and other business developments, as claimed by the prosecution.

After conducting the preliminary hearing, the magistrate adjourned the case to August 12, when the full hearing will take off. She ordered the prosecution to ensure all witnesses required to testify in the matter are available.

It is alleged that the accused persons conspired to stealing the money from the bank between January 1, 2007 and July 30, 2009.

Within the period in question, the prosecution alleged, fraudulently and without claim of right, jointly and together, the trio stole the said money from the bank.

Midole, being a servant of the bank, is charged with three counts relating to fraudulent accounting in relation to the money.

The prosecution alleged that between January 1, 2007 and July 30, 2009, at NMB headquarters in Ilala District in the city, Midole made false entries into NMB Suspense Account by debiting 579,887,395/26 into a personal account of Kindamba maintained at the bank's Magomeni Branch.

It is claimed that within the same period at the bank, Midole made another false entries into the NMB Suspense Account by debiting 389,038,786/41 and other 60,528,201/97 transferring into account of Cariton Trading Co. and Jacques Investment, respectively, both maintained at the bank's House Branch.

Midole was also charged with two money laundering offences for transferring the said 1,029,454,383/64 from bank account to personal accounts and converting into immovable property part of the money he received from Kindamba and Kikopa, while knowing it was proceeds of stealing, a predicate offence.

On his part, Kindamba is also charged with two money laundering counts for allegedly acquiring 579,887,395/26 transferred from a bank account to his personal account and spent part of them to build a house at Mabibo area for the purpose of disguising the illicit origin of the said money.

The prosecution charged Kikopa with three money laundering offences for allegedly acquiring 449,566,988/38 transferred from the bank account to his personal account and converted part of them to build a house at Mbezi area, while he knew that such money was the proceed of stealing.