With the court order, the Sh15 billion that had been kept in various bank accounts Dar es Salaam, eight landed properties and eleven vehicles that were registered in the name of Deci Tanzania Limited are properties of the government.
Dar es Salaam. Attempts by the shareholders of a banned pyramid scheme, the Development Entrepreneurship Community Initiative (Deci), to have a court order for confiscation of their Sh15billion and properties worth billions of shillings failed after the Court of Appeal rejected their application.
The top court has dismissed an application in which the directors of the scheme---Jackson Mtares, Dominic Kigendi, Timotheo Loitg’nye and Samwel Mtares---were challenging a decision of the same court that dismissed their appeal that opposed a decision of the High Court to bless confiscation of their money, motor vehicles and landed assets.
The court decision is one more nail in the coffin for hundreds of people who have deposited billions of shillings in the illegal scheme before it was banned and its directors arraigned.
With the court order, the Sh15 billion that had been kept in various bank accounts Dar es Salaam, eight landed properties and eleven vehicles that were registered in the name of Deci Tanzania Limited are properties of the government.
Initially, the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court that convicted the directors of illegally running and managing a pyramid scheme and accepting deposits from the general public without a licence ordered the accused to pay Sh21 million fine each. In a judgment delivered in August 2013, the court also ordered the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) to make arrangements so that people who deposited their money with Deci are refunded. The decision aggrieved the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) who unsuccessfully appealed to the High Court. The High Court insisted that people who deposited with Deci should be refunded under a special arrangement by the BoT.
It was the DPP’s argument that the money, the motor vehicles and the landed assets should not be refunded to the victims because they were proceeds of crime, acquired and collected through a pyramid scheme conducted by the appellants.
Under section 351 (1) (a) and (b)the court can order confiscation of properties of a person convicted of an offence upon satisfaction that the properties have been used for purposes of committing the offence or was intended for that purpose.
The DPP never lose hope and advanced to the Court of Appeal which finally directed him to file an application before the High Court for forfeiture of the Deci money in four bank accounts and landed assets. The High Court granted the application.
The appellants opposed the application, claiming that the properties in question were not tainted, not acquired from proceeds of pyramid scheme, but rather from members of Deci.
But after a protracted legal battle, the High Court found that all landed properties and motor vehicles registered in the name of Deci were tainted properties acquired through pyramid scheme conducted by the appellants.
The four Deci shareholders unsuccessful appealed against this High Court forfeiture order. That was not the end of it. The directors made their last legal attempt to oppose confiscation of their propterties and money when they asked the Court of Appeal to review its decision that blessed confiscation of the properties.
Three Court of Appeal Justices---Stella Mugasha, Ignus Kitusi and Gerson Mdemu after dismissing the application by Deci directors. The court said the application failed to meet legal requirements to warrant the court to review its own decision.
