The Financial Intelligence Centre, a financial investigation agency from Zambia, recently busted an illegal money laundering cartel. According to the reports, the amount of money involved in this illegal cartel is well beyond USD 1 million dollars. The FIC started deepening the investigation when more than 55,000 illegal and unauthorised cash transactions were observed. These cash transactions were observed across the corporate and individual bank accounts top lawyers, legal counsellors, government officials and contractors.
Masozi M Banda from Avik International is currently at the top of the list with accusations of laundering money more than USD 1 million. When confronted with these accusations, the lawyer defended himself by saying that the money in his account is provided by the President for government purpose such as road construction. Similarly, another name that popped in the list was of Sakwiba Sikota, the legal counsellor for the Ventriglias family. He is also the owner of Central Chambers. Sakwiba is notorious for his long-term relationship with the Ventriglias and has helped the family in various cases. One of the major cases involved Portland Cement Zambia in which the Ventriglias have contested ownership over the factory while in actual, it belongs to Dr. Rajan Mahtani.
Zambian government has started to look into this matter and will soon start its own investigation.