BUSINESSMAN’S HOME, CARS, CASH TO BE SEIZED

MBABANE – The High Court has issued yet another order for the seizure of a businessman’s assets which are believed to have been obtained through criminal activities.

The order was issued by Judge John Magagula following an application that was filed ex parte by the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The application was filed on the strength of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) of 2018.

The assets belong to Samuel Ndumiso Dlamini of Nhlambeni, who holds himself as a businessman. Dlamini is facing charges of tax evasion, bribery, corruption and contravening the Customs Act and investigations against him are ongoing.

The assets which the Crown obtained the preservation order in respect of are a residential home situated at Nhlambeni, a plot measuring 737 square metres at Nkhanini Township, a BMW 330 silver grey sedan registered MSD 360 AS, white Mercedes Benz C200 registered SSD 140 CM and a white BMW 1 Series with registration numbers SSD 693 CM.

phones

His other property include household items found at the Nhlambeni homestead, cellular phones and an amount of E3 500 in the same homestead and E15 000 that was allegedly found at Buka, in Ezulwini.

The DPP approached the court seeking orders permitting the State to preserve assets belonging to Dlamini who has allegedly acquired such property despite having no history of employment or business ventures.

According to the Head of the Asset Forfeiture Unit, Principal Crown Counsel Elsie Matsebula, the application in court was aimed at preventing Dlamini from concealing the items sought to be seized or forfeited.

Apart from being suspected to own properties in various areas, Dlamini’s bank account has allegedly been found to be active with substantial sums of money being deposited or withdrawn.

The orders prayed for by the Crown include prohibiting any person who has knowledge of the forfeiture order from dealing in any manner with the properties of the businessmen concerned.

In such matters, the court issues the preservation order if it is satisfied that the information provided shows that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the properties are proceeds of criminal activities.

The investigating officer in this matter stated that evidence showed that Dlamini allegedly had no known business trade or interest in the country.
Tax
He also submitted that a team of investigators established at the Eswatini Revenue Authority that Dlamini had allegedly never paid tax and had no tax record in the authority’s data base.

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