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 More big shots will be taken to court on Monday in connection with the online frauds that saw Tanzania Revenue Authority losing an estimated Sh115 billion ($77million), The Guardian on Sunday has reliably learnt. The big shots will join other six suspects who were taken to court on Thursday and Friday, this week in connection with theft of the taxman’s billions. According to a reliable source within the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau(PCCB), the four more suspects are accused of conspiring to steal billions of shillings through forged documents, money laundering and frauds.
However our source declined to name the suspects who will be taken to court tomorrow, saying that would jeopardise the planned procesutions. Contacted for comment on Friday, the PCCB Chief, Dr Edward Hosea, said, “It’s true…more big shots will be charged on Monday after we have fully completed our indepth investigation.” “We have established massive frauds involving local banks, public owned corporations and private companies…But I think it was high time the local bank changed its recruitment system because the current one is full of fraudsters.” The PCCB Chief told The Guardian on Sunday. The big shots are part of the syndicate that planned and executed a massive financial fraud that saw the Tanzania Revenue Authority lose an estimated $77million between June 2008 and May 2009. Five local companies operating in Dar es Salaam received the big chunk of stolen billions, acting in the same capacity in which the 13 companies that looted taxpayers’ billions in the External Payment Arrears account (EPA) scandal benefited. So far investigators from the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) have established that these five Tanzanians are the prime suspects who siphoned Sh5,876,680,677.74 ($5million) in taxes meant to have been paid by the TTCL to the TRA. Going beyond suspects The PCCB Chief told The Guardian on Sunday that during their investigation, the investigators went beyond investigating individuals, and widened their probe to assets owned by the accused. “We managed to identify the multibillions assets believed to have been bought by the stolen money…We have done our part and let others also play their role.” Dr. Hosea told The Guardian on Sunday. The Guardian on Sunday has also established that the PCCB has so far confiscated almost 20 luxury cars, including a BMW-M3, Range Rover Vogue, Toyota Lexus and others believed to have been bought with the stolen money. The PCCB also investigated 14 upscale houses built between July and May which are suspected to have been financed with the dirty money. The posh houses are located in the Mbezi Beach, Sala Sala, Bahari Beach and Masaki suburbs of Dar es Salaam as well as the Buhongwa suburb outside of Mwanza city on the southern shores of Lake Victoria. The carefully orchestrated theft was carried out between June 2008 and January 2009, before the TRA detected the missing money with the Tanzania Interbank Settlement Systems (TISS) — the electronic money transfer system introduced in the country in 2004. The key suspects known so far are Marcus Masilla from TTCL, Tuseke Anangisye and Paschal Mayila from the TRA, and Faraji Augustine and Nicholas Kwale from NBC Ltd. Others are Justice Katiti, former accountant of the TRA, Samuel Renju, Haggay Mwatonoka, and Hope Lulandala from NBC bank in Dar es Salaam. One of the suspects was arrested in Nairobi while trying to escape. He was repatriated to his country two weeks ago according to sources within TTCL and PCCB. According to details seen by The Guardian on Sunday, at least three local banks were used in what could be the second biggest corporate fraud in the country's history after the 2005 looting of the central bank's EPA account, in which the government lost $131 million in dubious payments to 22 local firms. The banks used to transfer at least part of the stolen TRA money include Standard Chartered Bank, National Bank of Commerce and Barclays Bank, The Guardian on Sunday has established. After detecting the theft, TTCL and the TRA jointly informed Tanzanian police in January this year, but after four months of investigation, the Force had still failed to apprehend the suspects. Alarmed by the Police failure, TTCL officials approached Anti-corruption czar Dr Edward Hosea who finally assigned his investigators to the case in May to investigate and possibly prosecute the suspects. It is believed that the paymaster at TTCL and his counterpart at the TRA had formed a money laundering system taking advantage of the loopholes within the computer system of the two agencies to steal taxpayers’ money. After authorising tax payments to TRA, a recruited agent from the TTCL paymaster’s office informed his counterpart at the tax authority, who then intercepted the payments and distributed them to five different companies with accounts at NBC, Standard Chartered and Barclays Bank. The money was intercepted through the computer system before it even reached the TRA’s large taxpayers’ account at the BoT, though the data at both TTCL and the TRA continued to show that the billions in tax payments had been made. According to investigators, the fraudsters were able to log onto the system using a special code on TRA.com and then intercept the money that was being transferred from TTCL to the TRA via the TISS system —the online system introduced five years ago to facilitate payments in excess of $8,000 (Tsh10 million). The theft was done on a monthly basis according to details obtained by The Guardian on Sunday. However, there are unconfirmed reports that the real culprits behind the theft are still on run, as those arrested decline to give more details of who actually masterminded the multibillion shillings online frauds. This is because the total number of assets and cash recovered from the arrested suspects is not tallying with the actual amount of money stolen by the syndicate. It is believed that majority of those arrested were used just as a transit under the agreements that they would be given 25 percent of the stolen billions.
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