Mahtani’s Role in the Cartel, Part 1 Yesterday on November 19 the controversial Finance Bank Chairman Rajan Mahtani convened a televised press conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka, where he issued a series of threats against journalists (including this publication), and firmly denied that he had any relation to the so-called “cartel” of special interests that has been pulling strings in a number of recent elections. “I am not a politician and only speak as a Zambian who loves his Country. I am non partisan. It is mischievous to allege that I now support a particular camp, real or imagined,” Mahtani said during the press conference. However a number of sources close to the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party disagree with Mr. Mahtani’s claims, indicating that as a key partner of Post Newspaper editor Fred M’membe, the Indian banker is very much involved as the primary financier of certain candidates through the cartel – a group which has become increasingly unpopular among many PF members. Even before President Michael Sata passed away, Mahtani’s influence at State House had been on the decline, sources say. For many months he had been seeking a private meeting with the president but was refused. Rumors regarding his sponsorship of Wynter Kabimba’s attempted coup while the president was abroad in Israel seemed to follow a similar pattern – under Kaunda he was once close to State House, and then fell afoul and was jailed, and then the same under President Frederick Chiluba, when Mahtani was jailed for sponsoring a failed military coup. Sources tell Zambia Reports that the latest move by the Mahtani-led cartel involves pushing forward Miles Sampa to become the next president, which includes a black media campaign to slander his rival Edgar Lungu in the Post and Zambian Watchdog. Sampa’s surprise candidacy appears awkward to many PF members, who were surprised that such an unknown and unpopular member would try to hijack control of the party. Sampa, who is Sata’s nephew, has worked as part of Mahtani’s organisation for years, beginning back during the presidency of Levy Mwanawasa, when Mahtani was playing a double game while simultaneously funding Mr. Sata. Sources say that Mahtani kept Miles around to “do the dirty work” alongside Noel Nkhoma and his other Indian trustees to continue with alleged “money laundering” activities, while ensuring he had “protection” from both political parties. Mahtani’s cartel activities were even cited by the U.S. State Department in the leaked diplomatic cables of Wikileaks. In a cable dated October 6, 2008, the U.S. Embassy wrote: “Sata’s praise of Indian businessman Rajan Mahtani, the owner of Finance Bank who previously supported Finance Minister Ng’andu Magande’s bid for the MMD nomination, suggests that PF may now be receiving funding from Mahtani and other prominent members of the business community.” Mahtani had a clear reason to fund Sata’s presidential run – he needed to claw back control of Finance Bank, which had been repossessed by the government for a variety of legal violations, ranging from illegal shareholdings to insider borrowing. According to one source, After Sata’s election he “didn’t give a reason” for reversing the handover the bank, and then just gutted the central bank and eventually put Mahtani’s colleague Michael Gondwe in charge, the “same person he used to manipulate debt in Zambezi Portland Cement to steal control of the asset.” First, on Oct 1, 2011, Sata ordered a commission of inquiry into the sale of Finance Bank. Then, before any commission could even be formed, on Oct 3, 2011 he went ahead and ordered that Finance Bank be “immediately” handed back to its former owners. By October 7, the dirty deed was done, and to this date no one knows why Sata refused to wait for the commission of inquiry. In part 2 of this series, we will examine the financial networks that connect Mahtani directly to other cartel members such as Fred M’membe and Mutembo Nchito, and how this group collided with other PF heavyweights such as Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda and former Defence Minister Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba. zambiareports/2014/11/20/mahtanis-role-cartel-part-1/
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 04:25:43 +0000
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