A key witness in the Samherji case in Namibia claims to have received an offer of over 400 million ISK (about N$54.4 million) to keep quiet about Samherji's operations in Namibia.
This is according to a witness statement by Sharon Neumbo, which is part of extensive research data in the Samherji case in Iceland.
Neumbo was the chairman of the board of a Namibian company that worked with Samherji in the country's fishing industry.
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The case is also under investigation in Namibia, where former ministers and influencers suspected of working with Samherji have been in custody since 2019. The investigation into the matter is over.
Neumbo, who is a witness in the Samherji case's investigation, claims to have been offered multiple payments to not ask questions about the operations of the Icelandic fishing company in Namibia in 2016.
She says that the person who offered her the payments was Egill Árnason, an employee of Samherji's African fishing company.
This is the conclusion of a 73-page witness report on Neumbo from the beginning of 2024.
Four employees of the district attorney went to Namibia to obtain her report.
Neumbo is the second leading whistleblower in the Namibian case. The other is the Icelandic whistleblower Jóhannes Stefánsson.
TOTAL OF N$54.4 MILLION
After the Samherji case arose in 2019, Neumbo claims to have received an offer of 50 million ISK (about N$6.75 million) and an additional 340 million ISK (about N$46.2 million), for not commenting on the case or testifying in investigations into it.
She says in her witness statement that this offer came through an intermediary but that the money was supposed to come from Samherji's group.
A total of over 400 million ISK was, therefore, the amount that Neumbo claims to have received as an offer from Samherji for keeping silent about its operations in Namibia.
SAMHERJI FOCUSES ON ICELAND AND LOOKS TO THE FUTURE
Questions were sent to Samherji about Neumbo's statements that she was offered large sums of money twice to keeping quiet about the company's activities in Namibia.
In response, Samherji's information officer in an email says: "Samherji has no response to your inquiry this morning. We look to the future and as an Icelandic company today we focus on our operations in Iceland and the challenges that come with it."
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One of the legal requests in the case sent to the Spanish government for a witness states that the investigation revolves around "alleged corruption and bribery and money laundering" allegedly related to those offences, as it is said. The research focuses on whether Samherji paid politicians and influencers in Namibia in exchange for horse mackerel quotas between 2012 and 2019.
- RÚV
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