Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)
Sisay Gebremariam
10 June 2008
Addis Ababa — The Federal High Court on April 18, 2008, has passed a verdict on Simu Wube, an employee of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), in the Foreign Remittance section of the International Banking Department, and his two accomplices - Eyosiyas Tesfamariyam and Yidnekachew Gebremariam.
The trio were charged with laundering over 1.1 million Br by faking swift message codes.
Solomon Ayalew, prosecutor of the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption charged the defendants on two counts: the illegal accumulation of wealth, as well as the abuse of professional office. The first accused, Simu, on April 26, 2005, accessed the bank's database and faked three swift message codes transferring the stated amount from the Finish Evangelic Lutheran Church's account, through the Finland Helsinki based Sampa Bank to the Ethiopian Evangelic Church Mekane-Eyesus Central Lutheran Diocese, through the CBE Hossa'anna branch.
The defendants then disbursed the money in three instalments to the same number of accounts they signed up in different branches using fake IDs and names but the same photo of Yidnekachew.
They first made an order for 30,000 Euros payable to one of the accounts in CBE, Tewodros Square Branch, using a bogus beneficiary name, Mustafa Seid, from a fake sender, Halima Seid through the Sweden Bank in Stockholm.
A second instalment of 35,875 Euros was made payable to an account in CBE Meskel Square Branch with the beneficiary being a non-existent account holder, Kedir Mousa. The transfer was channelled via the Commercial Bank in Frankfurt. The sender was listed as Ali Mousa.
This was followed by a 40,000 Euros payment order from the same bank but by a different sender, Seada Mohammad to an account in CBE, Gulele Branch, with the recipient being Mubarek Mohammad. Both names use during this transaction were, once again, false.
The defendants therefore transferred over 1.1 million Br to the accounts and withdrew a little over one million Birr, incurring CBE a loss of the stated amount as it paid the equivalent to the rightful beneficiary, the Ethiopian Evangelic Church Mekane - Eyesus Central Lutheran Diocese.
The judges, Mekonnen Gebrehiwot, Mustafa Ahmed and Muluken Tesahle sentenced Simu Wube to 13 years imprisonment and a 15,000 Br fine for all cases.
The charges against Yidnekachew have been temporarily annulled because he has not yet been arrested.
The third defendant, Eyosiyas, has been given a seven-year prison sentence and fined 10,000 Br.
Simu's lawyer, Amsale Tsehay, said the verdict was based on the defendant's involuntary confession as a result of interrogations that included beatings. "The verdict does not meet the principle 'beyond a reasonable shred of doubt' and we are unhappy with that. We will appeal to the Supreme Court," the lawyer said.
The bank (CBE) has not installed appropriate security systems to avoid tampering of its database. There are other people besides Simu who work in proximity to the database, Amsale elaborated.
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