Gaborone High Court Judge Christopher Gabanagae has said former Permanent Secretary to the President Carter Morupisi will be sentenced on 8th November.
This is to allow the prosecution to establish if Morupisi who was guilty of all the counts has previous convictions. His wife, Pini was discharged and acquitted.
Morupisi was facing three counts. They include abuse of office, receiving/accepting a bribe by a public officer and money laundering. In the third count, Morupisi was jointly charged with R7 Group and his wife with money laundering. These offences are alleged to be in connection with misappropriation of funds from the Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund.
According to court documents on the charge of money laundering, the particulars of the offence are that Morupisi and his wife Pinny Morupisi on or about May 15, 2017, laundered the amount of P630, 988.99, which the state argue are proceeds of crime.
On the charge of abuse of office, Morupisi is said to have- while employed as the Permanent Secretary, authorized Capital Management Botswana (CMB) to administer the BPOPF funds as private equity managers, and obtained valuable consideration for himself and his wife’s company, R7 Group.
Gabanagae found that by hastily signing the contract awarding CMB, knowing that there was a court order suspending the business of the board (BPOPF), Morupisi had ‘bad motives.
“I find the action of the first accused (Morupisi) of signing the contract whilst business of the board was suspended by the court order, was motivated by the benefit in the long run,” he said. Discharging and acquitting Morupisi’s wife, Gabanagae said; “I doubt if she knew her husband was involved in shady deals. It appears her only sin was that the vehicle was bought in her company’s name but there is no evidence that she took part in the commission of the crime.”
