The Finance Intelligence Centre is an intelligence agency that looks into financial corruption. FIC recently revealed a mass money laundering racket going on in Zambia. What was more shocking was the involvement of top lawyers and legal counsellors from the Zambian corporate and legal spheres. As per the reports shares, the total amount of money involved in this scheme goes beyond USD 1 billion in which, some of the legal counsellors are found to have involved in money laundering worth more than USD 1 million each. This is a huge amount of money for a typical lawyer and it is nearly impossible to go unnoticed. No wonder the shady government practices and the corruption inside law and order itself resulted in this successful long-running criminal enterprise.
Some of the top lawyers have been named in the list shared by the Financial Intelligence. Among the top is Masozi M. Banda, a noted lawyer working with the law firm, Avik International. He is accused of laundering money worth more than USD 1 million. While he has tried to save himself by saying that the amount in his personal account is for government contracts such as road construction, the transactions and amount does not have any listed government activity under his name. Another top name in the list was of Sakwiba Sikota, the owner of Central Chambers. He is infamous for his long-term relationship with the Ventriglias family as their legal counsellor. The Ventriglias are also noted for their unethical and corrupt practices. One of their most infamous acts was illegally taking over Portland Cement Zambia from Dr. Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, a noted businessman and philanthropist in Zambia. Since then, Dr. Rajan Mahtani has been fighting the case at the Lusaka High Court for legal ownership of the factory. The repercussions of this money laundering scheme might have immediate effects on the case and on Sakwiba’s ability to fight the case.