A money laundering compliance officer at Zanaco Bank Plc has testified in the matter where Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili is facing 39 counts of being in possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, uttering a false document and obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences.

Sellah Mtonga told the court that she did not suspect any anomaly on the different transactions that were made in Kambwili’s bank account at Zanaco and that she could not point out any illegality in the transactions.

In this matter, Kambwili, Mwamba Kambwili (his son), Mwamona ENG and Tech Services Ltd, Lukwesa Musonda Brano and Mulenga Makasa Kapilima are charged with one count of making a document without authority; one count of uttering a false document; two counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences and 35 counts of being in possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.

One of the offences on the indictment is that on August 18, 2016, Kambwili had K495,000 in his account suspected to be proceeds of crime.

Kambwili is in another count accused of having been in possession of K180,000, property suspected to be proceeds of crime. In another count, Kambwili is alleged to have been in possession of money amounting to K220,000 in his personal bank account. And on May 15, 2015, Kambwili is alleged to have been in possession money amounting to K640,000. All the money mentioned in the thirty-five counts is suspected to be proceeds of crime, and in an account that is domiciled at the Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) and at First National Bank (FNB) Zambia.

When the matter came up before Magistrate Mwaka Mikalile, Thursday, Mtonga testified that she had never made any suspicious transaction report in relation to Kambwili’s account to any law enforcement agencies.

She added that the compliance department had also never complained about suspicious transactions.

Mtonga testified that if customers made transactions beyond their thresholds, the bank engaged them to find out if they were expecting such amounts, after which they relayed the message to relevant authorities.

She, however, said that she did not have any knowledge about Kambwili’s account being seized because she did not receive any seizure notice.

Mtonga, however, expressed ignorance about Kambwili’s case being in court at the time she was approached by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) officers on February 8, who went silent until June 13, when she was asked to testify.

Mtonga denied ever receiving a complaint on Kambwili’s account until this year when he was being persecuted.

She said she only compiled Kambwili’s bank statements because there was a court order.

The court had earlier allowed Mtonga to produce Kambwili’s bank statements as part of the evidence and sustained the objection by the defence to the production of photocopied deposit slips because the custodianship had not been discovered.

The matter has been adjourned to September 3, 2018.