Court nails Intelligence Chief
Director of the National Intelligence Bureau, Elvis Thodi, has been found guilty of fraud and has been ordered to pay the woman he defrauded the sum of K34 million.
In a ruling by Justice John Katsala dated September 13 2017, which The Daily Times has seen, Thodi was found guilty of defrauding Thyolo Thava Member of Parliament, Mary Navicha of K28.5 million in 2014.
The court says the money should be paid back at a compound interest of 5 percent from August 12 2014.
“On the foregoing, I find that the plaintiff has proved her case to requisite standard of proof on a balance of probabilities. Looking at the deceit, dishonesty fraud and bad faith which the defendants have displayed, and perpetrated on the deal, it is clear that the partnership could not subsist and was terminated,” reads the judgement.
According to calculations by The Daily Times, if this amount has not yet been settled by today, the total sum payable would be K34 million.
“I do not think in the circumstances, it would be necessary to make an order rescinding the partnership. But in the event that it is still subsisting, the plaintiff would be entitled to an order rescinding it, which, for what it is worth, I hereby make,” it adds.
In the case, identified as Commercial Cause Number 197 of 2015, Thodi is the First Defendant, while Classic Holdings Limited is the second respondent AHL Commodities Exchange is a third party.
The court has, however, cleared AHL Commodities Exchange Limited.
“Coming to the Defendants’ claim against the Third Party, it must fail. The Defendants have failed to prove their case to the requisite standard in civil matters. Evidence show [sic] that the beans supplied were free from weevils. There is no evidence that the beans were infested with weevils and were rejected by Devot or that they were declared unfit for human consumption. As already found by this court in this judgement, the story about weevils and rejection of the beans is a fabrication by the 1st Defendant with the intention of defrauding the plaintiff of her money,” it reads.
Details of the case show that in August 2014, Thodi convinced Navicha to go into a business venture involving the supply of beans to a company in Botswana called Devot.
In order to persuade Navicha into joining the business, it is said Thodi showed her documents, including letters of credit, relating to the contract between Devot and an entity Thodi owns called Classic Holdings Limited.
According to court documents, Thodi assured Navicha that his entity would pump K78 million into the venture on or before August 19 2014 and that upon the sale of the beans in Botswana, he would pay Navicha her share of the proceeds through letters of credit he had secured.
The documents, in addition Thodi said the money would be paid back to her by the end of September 2014.
It is said that based on Thodi’s assurances, Navicha pumped K28.5 million into the business.
After two weeks Thodi informed Navitcha that he had dispatched six trucks of beans to Botswana. Later, he claimed that Devot, the Botswana Company, had rejected the beans because they were full of weevils.
However, it was later established in court that despite the claims that the Botswana company had rejected the beans, it, in fact, had gone further to resell the beans to its customers. Meanwhile, the letters of credit were never given to Navicha.
Thodi claimed in court that he had sent them in error to the Botswana company, which proceeded to cash them–a claim dismissed by the court
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