Two years ago, businessman Levy Lawrence Omulen was introduced to Malong Tong, aka Henry Ochown, as a wealthy South Sudanese investor interested in buying land for an industrial park in Uganda.
Omulen was told by a one Peter Lubwama that Malong was a wealthy South Sudanese businessman with connections to the South Sudan government. He was also told that Ochown had inherited vast wealth after his father died.
They told him they could help him do business in South Sudan because of the connections.
Omulen did some inquiries and discovered that Malong owned prime properties in Namugongo, Kyanja, and Nakasero, Kampala. He wanted to buy some specific machinery for his business in Uganda.
They told him that the machinery could be procured cheaply from South Sudan if he deposited some money in a Stanbic Bank dollar account, which was in the names of BMS General Trading Limited.
At this point, Omulen did not realise that most of this was fake, so he went ahead and made several payments, including funds to the dollar account in Stanbic Bank.
After a while, he received boxes said to contain dollars, which turned out to be counterfeit. He alerted police, but at this point, Lubwama and Malong had vanished into thin air.
Omulen went to court and, with the help of the DPP, opened a case against Malong, Lubwama, and other accomplices.
The DPP suspected that the funds on the Stanbic Bank account were proceeds of crime under the Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Anti-Corruption Act, and therefore sought to have
At the centre of the matter was Shs 800 million ($221,000), deposited into the Stanbic Bank account in two instalments of $158,000 and $63,000 on the instructions of Malong.
Investigators told the court that Hassan Mohammed Abdalla and Mohammed Abdulle Abdul Kadir, directors of BMS General Trading, were signatories to the account and were accomplices because Malong directed Omulen to deposit funds there.
The prosecution argued that there was “direct evidence tracing the stolen money into the specified account” and that the funds were reasonably believed to be proceeds of crime.
The court was told that this created a link between Malong and the BMS account in Stanbic Bank, but it also noted that the account held sums exceeding the disputed amount and clarified that the restriction would be limited to Shs 800 million.
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Justice Michael Elubu, who heard the case dirtected Stanbic Bank to ensure that this amount must be maintained as a minimum balance.
The court also stopped the sale of several properties in Namugongo, Kyanja, Kungu, and Nakwero, as well as motor vehicle registration number UA 536 BM, all linked to Ochown or his accomplices.
Some properties were registered in the names of relatives and associates of Malong, including Jane Kudu Wabed, his sister, and Harriet Kisitu, his girlfriend.
Justice Elubu said: “I find there are grounds to believe that this is tainted property.”
The state argued that it had to act fast because failure to do so would lead quick sale of the contested properties, rendering their confiscation difficult. Malong did not file a defence, meaning the application was heard ex parte.
In the end, Justice Elubu granted the state’s application to freeze the Stanbic Bank account that held the contested money. He also stopped the sale of the contested properties.
