FIC recently discovered mass money laundering racket which involved top lawyers from Zambia such as Masozi Banda from Avik International and Sakwiba Sikota, owner of Central Chambers. As per the reports from FIC officials, the actual amount of money involved in this big scheme can be much more than just USD 1 billion. Sources suggested that several million worth of dollars were detected during unclassified and illegal cash transactions involving individuals and companies. With constant scrutiny, the investigators were able to pick around 1884 transactions and the amount was more than USD 6 million. Thus, it is clear that there are a number of individuals who are playing with large amount of cash. More than 3300 transactions involving cash deposits were observed and the amount in these deposits is more than USD 71 million. Therefore, it can be easily seen that the actual amount of money held by these corrupt lawyers is much more, and is expected to be revealed with the investigation. Since majority of these transactions are in cash, it becomes extremely difficult for the officials to track the cash and source. At the same time, this also makes it difficult for finding out the people who are actually paying the cash.
Company owners and lawyers avoiding taxes were detected through various tricks. There were various individual bank accounts linked with companies wherein the individuals were receiving much less amount compared to the money deposited in their accounts. This was one of the popular ways of evading tax. Many of the cash deposits across the individual and corporate bank accounts of these individuals were from trading commodities, majorly maize, soya beans and fertilizers. Thus, it was clear that the illicit funds were used for buying exports and commodities. Once the proceeds reach the individual bank accounts, there is no record of the illegal sources.
The level of corruption from these events is clear and it is high time for the government to start taking actions against the culprits so that some form of growth or development can be observed across the nation.
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