The task team leading investigations into the nexus of corruption between political and business elites was last week divided over plans to raid former President Lt Gen Ian Khama.
In what may be an indication that the former president is in line for corruption investigations, a section of the task team made up of representatives from the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS), Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was last week mulling the idea of securing a search warrant against Khama.
A number of business people who were raided last week are believed to have links with Khama, among them Isaac Kgosi who is Khama’s trusted ally and Corporate Services Managing Director John Little who provides secretarial services to both Khama and Kgosi’s companies.
The Sunday Standard has established that the investigating team is also gunning for Shaduff Baaitse who at the time of the raid was said to be outside the country.
Baaitse owns prevailing Security Company, among a suite of entities that also include construction companies. His security company owns a fleet of aircraft some of which he has been lending to former President Khama for private travels. Baaitse is Khama’s fixer in chief and some of Baaitse’s assets are believed to be held on behalf of Khama.
Khama’s name also cropped up when the investigating team probed through a web of DIS accounts, front companies accounts and Isaac Kgosi’s personal accounts which the former DIS Director General allegedly used interchangeably to blend DIS money by crediting funds into his personal accounts and private company account to later pay for official DIS transactions. The Serowe North Development Trust, an organisation set up by President Ian Khama, was used by Kgosi for DIS official transactions.
The Serowe North Development Trust bank account was opened by Khama in the 1990s when he was vice president. It is however not clear how the account came to be used by the DIS for its international transactions. Kgosi has in the past admitted that DIS used the Serowe North Development Trust bank account to make ”substantial” payments.
