State’s case in NBS Bank fraud nears end

The State is nearly done with the fraud case in which businessman Dickson Kachingwe and former NBS Bank employees Goodson Kapalamula (accounts officer) and Victor Banda (operations manager) are accused of defrauding the bank of around K1 billion between 2013 and 2016.

Monday, the State brought sixth witness, Malawi Police Service investigator Loveness Jana, who may be the last State witness in the case, according to Director of Public Prosecutions Steven Kayuni.

“We will see how the cross-examination goes tomorrow and we will, thereafter, decide whether we should call the final witness,” he said.

Jana showed the court bank statements, including returned checks which were cashed, allegedly with the help of the employees.

“These are just some of the cheques but there are many others and I cannot go through all of them in this honourable court,” he said.

The cheques are from several companies, including Yankho Logistics, Yankho Wholesalers and Ulimi Produce, which, the court learned, are registered by Kachingwe.

The defence had earlier objected to Jana tendering some documents in the court, saying they would have been well explained by a bank official.

However, the court overruled the objection, saying it was not mandatory that only bank officials could speak in court on the said documents.

Jana also presented pictures of a piece of land and trucks that Kachingwe allegedly bought using money he supposedly stole from the bank.

Defence lawyer Christopher Masanjesaid was happy that the State was almost done with its case, saying the case had been running for a long time.

“Investigations were finished in 2017 and we have been on this case from 2018; as such, it has been a long journey,” he said.