FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISOR TO PAST PRESIDENT E.C LUNGU REFUTES THAT HIS PROPERTIES ARE NOT PROCEEDS OF CRIME

FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISOR TO PAST PRESIDENT E.C LUNGU REFUTES THAT HIS PROPERTIES ARE NOT PROCEEDS OF CRIME

FORMER economic adviser to immediate past president Edgar Lungu, Hibeene Mwiinga has refuted allegations that his properties are proceeds of crime.

Mr Mwiinga has also wondered how he is accused of having properties deemed to he proceeds of crime when he already had money and other investments before he was appointed in 2015.

The accused told a magistrate that he earned not less than U$S2million when he worked for African Development Bank (AfDB) ffrokn2006 to 2010.

Mr Mwiinga wondered why he is being accused of acquiring assets using proceeds of crime when he worked for his hard earned money even before being appointed by Mr Lungu.

He adds that he earned and saved a lot of money when he worked as AfDB director group advisor to the board of directors and also had extra money from his business ventures.

“The last time I calculated, I earned over US$ 300,000 for four meetings I attended as AfDB board director”.

Mr Mwiinga adds that when he worked for AfDB in Tunisia, the accused and his wife ordered clothes and shoes from Scotland and re-selling them, from which the couple made profits in excess of US$3million.

He said with all that money, “Can I spent all that money on chocolates? No, I invested”.

Mr Mwiinga, who is a former Ministry of Finance principal economist,  added that

“I went on a minimum of 20 foreign trips while at State House and I earned a minimum of US$ 7,000 per trip”.

This is in a case Mr Mwiinga, 60, of Mwembeshi, his wife, Mercy, 56, and son Hakaantu, 33, are charged with numerous counts of possession of properties valued about K41 million and over US$238,900, reasonably suspected of being crime proceeds.

An investigator had narrated that Hibeene earned between K10 million and K15 million from 2015 to 2021.

But in his defence yesterday, the accused denied the allegations he is alleged to have committed between 2015 and 2021.

The court heard that he  has always been entrepreneurial and started investing through his bakery, livestock, chicken rearing and fish farming businesses before being appointed.

Mr Mwiinga also told the court he had a bakery he open in 2011 and would supply bread upto as far as Chibombo.

“When we started the business, a loaf of bread was K9, K10. Bread is sold and made every day, if you make 2000 loaves, you make alot of money”.

Mwiinga argued that the K12.4million at which his Mwembeshi farm was valued by the State was inaccurate because some construction works were carried out by Hakaantu.

He said in 2011, he invested in fish farming at a cost of US$200million.

“The two ponds gave us 200,000 pieces of fish every year. Each fish was sold at K40”.

The businessman said he also has 30 tonne trucks which were being hired out and one trip earns him K300, 000”.

Mr Mwiinga said the time he worked for AfDB in Tunisia from 2006 to 2010, he earned over US$2million and “I had in excess of US$500,000 allowances when I worked for the bank when I travel abroad.

“By the time we came back to this country, we had so much cash”.

Mwebantu