The Zambian government is certainly facing a dark period in their law and order with the revelation of mass money laundering racket under their nose. FIC (Financial Intelligence Agency) is a noted intelligence firm of Zambia which recently discovered this money laundering racket. The worst part of this racket is that it involves some of the prominent names in the legal industry of Zambia. With this exposure of the racket, the FIC also released a list of names of prominent government contractors, political figures, and legal counselors, owners of law firms & even ministers who are suspected of money laundering activities. This list is not exhaustive and much more are expected to be included in the strengthening of this investigation.
Some of the high profile names in the political arena include Ex-Energy Minister Chitotela and Minister of Mines, Yaluma. Some of the other prominent legal counselors suspected include Dora Siliya and Jean Kapata. Other than these names, one of the names that caught attention was of Sakwiba Sikota, legal counselor to the Ventriglias and proprietor of law firm Central Chambers. It is suspected that majority of those suspected are laundering money for Edgar Lungu. Edgar Lungu has notoriously gained the reputation of Dictator of Zambia and the investigators have confirmed that the amount involved in these illegal transactions is almost USD one billion.
The worse scenario is that majority of these lawyers or owners of law firms have to support from political parties or individuals having high political authority. As such, these people have been able to escape from being caught for so long. The investigation went further to reveal that more than 35,000 cash transactions have occurred across the banks of the suspected. Most of the money is wired to banks in China or Dubai, which are notorious for harboring safe havens for illegal money. As such, the investigation might reach various roadblocks. FIC has requested support from the Zambian government to give it full access to understand the extent of this money laundering racket and bring out all those guilty.