As per the list released by FIC (Financial Intelligence Centre), top lawyers and legal counsellors have been charged with illegal money laundering act. The news was released by the FIC along with a list of names of top legal counsellors across public and private sector firms involved in the act. Masozi Banda, a lawyer from law firm Avik International is currently topping this list. As per the FIC sources, majority of the money received by Banda was of Edgar Lungu, the President of Zambia who has created a dictatorship across the nation. Banda defended himself by saying that he was just a conduit in the cash transactions and the amount received was for various government contracts such as construction of roads. However, the investigation has been started against him as his statements have been considered baseless.

At the same time, many other top law firm and legal organisations have been associated with the illegal money laundering scheme worth more than USD 1 billion dollars. Some of these top law firms were Central Chambers, Makebi Zulu Law Advocates, Shamwana and Company etc. Some of these law firms are also associated with current and former government officials. For instance, the SJL (Silwamba, Jalasi and Linyama) Associate is a law firm owned by Eric Silwama, a former Presidential Affairs Minister. This law firm is also named in the list of money laundering. A strange pattern which led to the discovery of this illicit money laundering campaign was the illicit cash transactions and deposits occurring across the bank accounts of lawyers. Information related to these accounts confirmed their high activity during Rupiah Banda’s trail over Nigerian Oil Deal, during Presidential petition as well as last year’s illegal elections. It is clear that the money in these cash transactions is being used for funding illicit activities.

Industrialists and commoners have condemned the action and strict punishment has been demanded against these culprits who are burning the country’s economy to fill their own pockets.