Probe links Khamas to missing P5.6 billion

In a breathtaking confirmation, DISS says it is sniffing around offshore accounts held by the daughter of Tshekedi Khama, Tahlia, for P3 billion of a total P5.6 billion that was looted from the Bank of Botswana when Ian Khama was president.
TEFO PHEAGE & LAWRENCE SERETSE report

 

A four-agency investigation is hot on the paper trail of P5.6 billion missing from the Bank of Botswana (BoB) and is sniffing around offshore accounts linked to Tshekedi Khama’s daughter, Tahlia, in Asia and Europe, the head of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services, (DISS), Brigadier Peter Magosi, has confirmed.

The head of Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), Brigadier Joseph Mathambo, recently made a similar announcement about P5.6 billion missing form BoB, although he fell short of the Tshekedi and daughter connection.

Preliminary investigations have so far established that out of the P5.6 billion, P3 billion was allegedly transferred to offshore accounts suspected to have links to Tahlia.
Agents of Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS), the Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), DCEC and DISS are working in collaboration with South African Revenue Service (SARS) in this matter. All four plus one took a trip abroad on a fact finding mission in relation to the probe last week.

Tshekedi’s daughter has lived outside Botswana for the most part of her life. Suspicions are that an account under her name was secretly used by the Khama brothers, Tshekedi and former president Ian.

Asked pointedly if DISS was investigating the matter in which the Khamas are suspected to have looted P5.6 billion from BoB and if P3 billion of this had allegedly been traced to offshore accounts linked to Tshekedi’s daughter, Magosi answered in the affirmative.

“Yes,” the Director General of DISS said.
Asked to elaborate, Magosi responded:”Please do understand that we can’t share more than this to ensure clean investigations.” Meanwhile, Tshekedi has dismissed this as a political smear campaign meant to tarnish the image of the Khama family. “I am going to take Magosi to task over this,” he said. “This is all lies. Magosi should focus on his fights with the IEC and giving the DCEC responses about his Chinese corruption scandal.”

But there could be ego glitches to overcome because source at one of the law enforcement agencies says it is not an easy investigation for the reason that the investigating partners are in constant clashes over style and approach. When Mathambo went on national television to announce that much money was missing from public coffers, Magosi was reportedly against going public about the probe for fear of alerting those targeted.

But Mathambo was newly arrived and eager to make a mark and a name for himself as a game-changer. Magosi and Mathambo are said to be at variance on approaches to issues.