Three people from Zambia and one from China have been detained for allegedly laundering more than K5 million.
The four, one of them is female, misrepresented the enterprise as a place of lending money when it was really a money-laundering operation.
The four have subsequently been freed on police bond, according to Hussein Khan, public relations officer for the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), and they will shortly appear in court.
According to Mr. Khan, the commission’s Anti-Money Laundering Investigations Unit, working with the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority, arrested the four, three Zambians, and one Chinese national (ZICTA).
“The Commission has formally jointly charged and arrested Mary Maimba, a Human Resource Manager aged 32 ,Geoffrey Sichiweza,aged 29 , Raymond Muluti, a Translator, aged 22 of and Gu Zhaofei, a Quality Controller, aged 35 for accessing an Electronic Communications Network or Electronic Communication Service contrary to section 77 (2) (d) of the Information and Communications Technologies Act Number. 15 of 2009 of the Laws of Zambia and Money Laundering contrary to section 7 of the Prohibition and Prevention of Money Laundering Act Number 14 of 2001 as amended by Act Number 44 of 2010 of the Laws of Zambia,” he said.
According to him, the four accused illegally gained access to a well-known mobile service provider’s electronic communication network between November 1 and March 6 of 2023 while acting together and in concert with unidentified parties and on unspecified dates.
Using unlicensed, unapproved sim boxes, according to Mr. Khan, they were able to terminate international calls coming into Zambia, leading them to be treated and charged as local calls, and profiting from the difference.
“Further, the suspects were found in possession of four newly acquired and imported sim box machines. This illegal business was disguised by purporting that they were operating a money lending business named Vansiho Money Lending.The bank account of Vansiho has been frozen with a balance of K5, 360, 288.93 suspected of being proceeds of crime,” he said.
