Zorena Jantze

HIGH Court Judge, Shafimana Ueitele, on Tuesday, 5 November, gave a forfeiture order for a complete quantity of N$6.5 million within the account of Fishrot accused lawyer Maren De Klerk and his regulation agency De Klerk, Horn and Coetzee (DHC) Legal Practitioners to the State.

De Klerk, who fled to South Africa in early 2020 after the Fishrot scandal exploded, is implicated alongside ex-cabinet ministers comparable to the previous Minister of Fisheries, Bernard Esau, former Minister of Justice, Sacky Shanghala, and businessmen James Hatuikulipi, Pius Mwatelulo, Tamson Hatuikulipi, Mike Nghipunya, Otneel Shuudifonya, Phillipus Mwapopi, and Nigel van Wyk, who’re accused of corruptly receiving funds of at the very least N$300 million to offer a aggressive benefit to Icelandic fishing firm Samherji in securing entry to horse mackerel quotas in Namibia.

Attempts by Namibian authorities to extradite De Klerk need to date failed.

On 18 October 2022, the Prosecutor General (PG), on an ex parte foundation, launched an software within the High Court beneath part 51, Chapter 6 of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA) to protect sure properties: an quantity of N$4,681,518.28 in a Bank Windhoek account held within the title of De Klerk, Horn and Coetzee Legal Practitioners Inc, and an quantity of N$1,870,941.54 in a Nedbank account held within the title of De Klerk.

In the preservation software, the PG alleged {that a} scheme was devised by the accused to unlawfully dump state fishing quotas by Fishcor. The PG alleged that, to ensure that the people and entities to unlawfully obtain the funds for promoting off the state fishing quotas, De Klerk was approached to permit DHC Inc’s belief account for use as a conduit to obtain and pay monies from the sale of the fishing quotas. The PG additional alleged that De Klerk was additionally instructed to create a particular goal automobile, by way of a non-public firm, of which he could be the nominee shareholder and director on behalf of two of the individuals accused within the Fishrot scandal. The firm so created was Celax Investments Number One (Pty) Ltd (Celax Investments).

It is the Prosecutor General’s allegation that by way of this modus operandi, an quantity of roughly N$81 million was paid to DHC Inc’s belief account and was, from that belief account, paid on to Celax Investments and distributed to totally different people, corporations, and entities. The N$6.5 million is the steadiness from the N$81 million, as alleged by the PG. The High Court on 2 December granted the preservation of property order.

The fugitive’s legal professionals’ attraction try and have the preservation order granted in December 2022, dismissed on a technical foundation, additionally failed within the Supreme Court in September 2024.

High Court Judge Ueitele, within the ultimate forfeiture order, stated that any individual whose curiosity is affected by the forfeiture order could, inside 30 days after the discover of the making of the forfeiture is printed within the Gazette, apply for an order excluding his or her curiosity within the property involved, and that the matter has been finalized and faraway from the roll.