The High Court’s Commercial Division in Lilongwe has declared Blantyre-based businessperson Zameer Karim bankrupt in a case in which the State is claiming over K6 billion from the mogul.
When a person is bankrupt, a court of law gives control of the finances to someone who will arrange to pay as much as possible of what is owed.
It is not clear what assets Karim possesses and whether it will be “straightforward” for the government to claim its share from them.
But Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda insists it may not be very difficult to recover the K6 billion.
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On Wednesday, Karim and his lawyer were not available in court and his lawyer had sent another attorney Innocent Zimba to seek adjournment of the case.
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But the State, through Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda, objected to the adjournment prayer, saying the case had taken a “very long time”.
Chakaka Nyirenda then applied to court that the documents presented by Karim in defence be expunged (removed) for his failure to appear in court.
Justice Charlotte Malonda agreed with the AG and expunged the documents and the case proceeded without the evidence of Karim.
Chakaka Nyirenda then applied to the court that Karim be declared bankrupt and the court proceeded to declare him bankrupt.
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In an interview outside the court, Chakaka Nyirenda said moving forward, he has prayed to the court that a competent auditor be appointed to trace the assets of Karim.
He claimed that the State understands that the assets of Karim have been “fraudulently transferred to other people” with the view to defeat claims by various claimants, including government.
Chakaka Nyirenda said chances of claiming the K6 billion appear good apparently because government knows where some of the assets are.
Zimba asked for more time before commenting on the matter Wednesday.
On November 13, 2020, the High Court ordered Karim to pay the AG the sum of K2,365,320,994.03 being indemnity claimed by the Malawi Police Service(MPS) and the sum of K3,824,148,217.81 representing interest due and owed to MPS.
According to court records, MPS entered into a contract with Karim’s Pioneer Investments to packs at about K2.1 billion. supply 500,000 food ration
But Karim, according to court documents, did not have sufficient funds to execute the contract; hence, he approached CDH Investment Bank Limited to provide K700 million which was guaranteed by the government.
One of the conditions was an agreement of assignment of proceeds under the contract to CDH Investment Bank.
When government paid Karim for the contract, he did not pay back the money to the bank.
In 2017, CDH Investment Bank sued the AG’s office and the Malawi Government was made to pay about K2.3 billion, which included the loan Karim obtained from the bank, interest and some collection fees.
Government, which had already paid Karim his money, then sued him through the AG for making Capital Hill pay twice in the matter.
