By Aminata Phidelia Allie
The twelfth prosecution witness (PW12) in the matter concerning former workers of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Ecobank and the Sierra Leone Shipping Company has tendered bank statements and asset declaration form of former NRA staff, Solomon Michael Hindolo Katta.
Anti-Corruption Commission investigator, Keni Alie Brima Walker, told a High Court in Freetown presided over by Justice M. A. Paul, that “as a way of establishing all accounts operated by the accused, my investigation team sent notices to commercial banks who in turn sent us the statements”.
PW12 said that after a thorough analysis of the statements, he observed that Katta, who is standing trial alongside his wife Catherine Katta, operated four different accounts at Ecobank alone.
They include two Leone accounts into which he deposited an amount of over Le 2 billion, and two dollar accounts into which he deposited over US$ 267,000 for the period from 1 September 2009 to 19 June 2013.
The witness also tendered an analyzed salary emolument record which, according to him, showed that the accused received a total emolument of Le 28, 878, 352 million for the period under investigation.
Before that Walker said he had had cause to caution and interview the second accused, Idrissa Fornah, who admitted to receiving an ADDAX PAYE cheque from a “white man” and that he issued the “white man” with a cheque in respect of the payment for the sum of Le 392, 238, 864million.
Walker said the accused confessed to him that the cheque got missing whiles in his custody but “neither his superiors nor ADDAX was informed about it. As a result of this, we sent out notices to commercial banks and we got the statements in return which we analyzed”.
During the course of their investigation, PW12 said they learnt that the said cheque, which was meant to be paid into the NRA account at Ecobank, was instead paid into the Maxim company account operated by Solomon Katta at Ecobank.
“This led to our requesting the company’s account statement and we got it”. At the end of our analysis, we observed that an amount of Le 392, 238,864 million was deposited into this account on 30 May this year. Within eleven days, systemic withdrawals were made from this account totaling Le 339, 500,000 million, leaving a balance of Le 60, 284, 266 million”.
He further stated that it was also observed that the Maxim’s account had no overdraft facility with Ecobank, adding that without the amount on the cheque being deposited into the account, it would have been impossible for “that colossal sum to have been withdrawn from it”.
The five before the court this week are Solomon Michael Hindolo Katta, Idrissa Fornah, Momoh Turay, Emmanuel Sesay and Catherine Katta.
Santigie Kargbo is still at large and Elizabeth King is facing a separate trial.
The matter continues today for the witness to be cross-examined and for defense to possibly open its case.
© Politico 07/11/13
