The Nampula Provincial Court in northern Mozambique on Thursday sentenced five people to jail terms of between 3 and 16 years for the theft of 1.4 million meticais (about 47,000 US dollars) from state coffers.The longest prison term, 16 years, was imposed on Zaituna Reendra an official of the Mozambique Tax Authority (AT) who works in the unit dealing with major taxpayers. Another tax official, Ana Marquesa, received six years.Two workers at the country’s largest commercial bank, Millennium-BIM (International Bank of Mozambique), Celso Junior and Dionisio Mugabe, were sentenced to 12 and 4 years. An accomplice, Domingos Popoleque, who is a barber, received a three year sentence.Reading out her verdict and sentence, judge Nateria Mendes said Natercia and Junior received the longest sentences because they behaved “in a premeditated and fraudulent way”. The other three accused had cooperated with the court, and had shown repentance for their acts.The theft took the form of diverting cheques for tax payments which several Nampula companies had deposited with the AT’s Large Taxpayers’ Unit. This required the connivance of both tax officials and bank workers, to divert the money into private hands.It is suspected that others were involved in the theft. According to a report in Friday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”, the director and deputy director of the Nampula Large Taxpayers Unit, Comanda Momade and Ismael Adamo, are now under investigation, and may be questioned by prosecutors in the coming days.Similarly some employees of the companies whose cheques were diverted will also be questioned in an attempt to ascertain whether they were involved.
0 comentários:
Post a Comment