In a recently published attack against the popular government-critical website Zambian Watchdog, Finance Bank Chairman and owner of Finsbury Investments Rajan Mahtani is identified to be among the organisation’s financiers.
According to the author of the attack article, “Rajan Mathan uses one of his workers as a representative hence the positive reporting you see of him over the past few years. Don’t you find it paradoxical that the ZWD never mention his corrupt deals with PF yet they only attack other corrupt PF officials? Mathan made a deal with them after constant negative report concerning the infamous oil deal under a company called Trafigura which he and Winter Kabimba supported.”
If the allegations are true that Mahtani is funding a website that known for its aggressive attacks on the ruling Patriotic Front party and President Michael Sata, account holders at Finance Bank may be concerned about Mahtani’s potentially risky political situation, as the revelation could cause him to lose some of the good favour he has with the government.
Analysts have noted that Mahtani owes a lot to the current government. Within days of being elected President, Michael Sata ordered a Commission of Inquiry into the takeover of Finance Bank by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ), which had found that Mahtani was violating banking law by owning more than 50% of the bank through nominees. Before Sata’s Commission of Inquiry had even been appointed, the new president went ahead and fired Zambia’s highly regarded central banker Caleb Fundanga and ordered the immediate return Finance Bank to Mahtani. Later, after the Director of Public Prosecutions Mutembo Nchito was sworn in, he entered two noelle prosequis on standing criminal prosecutions against Mahtani, to whom he owed some $4.2 million in debt. Mahtani would later discontinue his legal claim against Nchito for these funds.
A loss of influence among the political leadership could pose significant problems for Mahtani, who up until the 2011 election was facing a money laundering investigation by the Drug Enforcement Commission with the legal support of the United States government.
In Zambian Watchdog’s response to the attack article, some doubt is cast upon the author’s claims. The administrators write in their response, “Yaba, so Mahtani is funding both the PF and ZWD?”
There is however an established pattern of numerous promotional press releases published by Watchdog related to activities of Mahtani. Unlike most articles published on the website allowing feedback from readers, the articles mentioning Mahtani appear to be closed with the notice “comments off.”
The post Mahtani Linked to Anti-Government Website appeared first on Zambia Reports.