Mpombo appeals to US, HH over his $2m stuck at Amazon
By Fanny Kalonda
FORMER defence minister is appealing to President Hakainde Hichilema and the American Embassy to help him access his $2 million book revenue held up at Amazon.
He says while America is the citadel of business ethics and morality, “right now I do not know which bank has my funds and the status of those funds”.
Mpombo, who also served as Zambia’s high commissioner to Nigeria, told The Mast that there has been constant flip-flopping on the issue of his money transfer.
He said the original amount on Amazon website was $2 million but “PayPal decided to reflect only $1.5 million”.
“It’s really flabbergasting and befuddling that the Amazon book issue continued to besmirched in deep irregularities two months after restarting the process with Amazon following that ugly impasse with PayPal,” he said. “The chief accountant at Amazon Mr Garman Daman sent three bank application forms for account opening for IDBI Bank, Access Bank of Nigeria, and Atlas Mara Bank who are my bankers despite proving full details of my account details with the bank.
After a few days an e-mail came from Daman asking for $22 for account opening without disclosing the name of the bank. Three, four days later a credit card authorisation application form was sent with an agreement form for $2.5 million. Accompanying the bank account applications were my personal details on each of the application forms like e-mail, NRC (national registration card) and signature. Mr Daman then e-mailed me to say since the transaction was in the final stages Mr Keith B Alexander, the CEO, and president would take over from him.”
Mpombo said since then “it’s a back and forth scenario being asked to pay for all sorts of charges, which I have declined on the basis it’s unethical to ask a client to pay for service on a refund basis”.
“On the other day I was asked to pay $100 for a smooth bank transfer. I found the request very odd and strange and declined. The whole thing has become mind boggling and unsettling as we don’t know whether we are dealing with genuine Amazon officials or sophisticated hackers,” said Mpombo. “Once again I appeal to President HH as father of the nation to help and also the American Embassy to step in as America is the citadel of business ethics and morality. Right now I do not know which bank has my funds and the status of those funds. There’s been constant flip-flopping on the issue of fund transfer whether to my bankers or the two.”