Suspected CGM fraudsters off the hook

‘MATHATO SEBOKA
MASERU – Chief Magistrate ‘Matankiso Nthunya has ordered withdrawal of charges against two co-accused in the highly publicized textile company CGM Group’s multi-million money-laundering and fraud case. CGM and sister company Presitex Enterprises PTY Ltd beginning 2013 received massive loans from government of Lesotho as financial stimulus to struggling companies in the textile industry.
Loans disbursed to the two companies over the years amount to close to M1 billion, which has reportedly all been embezzled – siphoned into fake accounts by CGM boss and mastermind of the fraud scheme Madhav Vasant Dalvi.
‘Mathabo Klass and Tseko Bohloa were employees of the company, and charges preferred against them, and their co-accused, by the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Offences (DCEO) indicate that the two were part of a group of people Dalvi used to funnel monies out of CGM and Presitex into bank accounts of his various phoney companies abroad.
The DCEO charged nine accused persons in all, who, following their appearance in court in May 2024, were each granted M10 000 bail and each ordered to provide surety in the form of immovable property amounting to M100 000.
In the DCEO’s case Madhav Vasant Dalvi and 9 others were charged with theft, abuse of power, money laundering involving M700 million and contravening of companies Act 2011.
But in the March 3 Magistrate Nthunya’a order the court further instructed that while Klaas and Bohloa’s are dropped, their bail deposit must be returned to them and their sureties discharged instantly.
Klass was an employee at Presitex and Bohloa was the mother company’s (CGM) auditor when all the millions were allegedly pilfered. The DCEO’s case is that Dalvi hatched a broad plan to divert the bailout money the companies had received from government for personal gain.