The ‘Financial Intelligence Centre’ recently discovered a huge money laundering cartel involving prominent lawyers, legal counselors, government officials, high-ranking government contractors, owners of law firms and even some ministers from Zambian government. This is certainly a huge shock for entire Zambia as well as the government. The amount involved in this racket is also huge, touching almost 1 million US dollars. At the same time, it has been suspected that this illegal money laundering activities have been going for a long time before the first investigation even started.
This high-profile scandal is a huge blow to the government and Zambian economy, which has been trying hard to improve its image and enter into the fast-emerging nations across the globe. The worse part of this scandal is the involvement of high-level government and private individuals. It can be seen why this scandal was running under the government’s nose all these years without being detected. It is also suspected that most of the suspects are laundering money for Edgar Lungu, infamous dictator of Zambia. Among several legal counselors and law firms, one was Central Chambers. This law firm is owned by Sakwiba Sikota, the legal counselor for the Ventriglias. The case between Dr. Rajan Mahtani and the Ventriglias for rightful ownership of the Zambezi Portland cement is known to almost everyone. Sikota’s name in the list is a clear indication of his wrongful involvement and his businesses with corrupt individuals and families.
This scandal has been highly condemned by the locals as well as industrialists. Most of the top businessmen are protesting the government to take stringiest actions against these culprits and ensure that the entire money laundering cartel is uprooted from the ground. Only then the country will be able to improve its image across the national and international arena and start walking in the path of development and growth.