The well-known business people’s court case dates back to its beginnings when the Federal High Court’s 3rd Tax and Customs Crime Bench of Lideta Division rendered a decision on the matter to be heard by three judges.
Recall that on the charges of money laundering and illegal money transfer, the Federal Prosecutor General filed a criminal charge against Azeb Mihretab as the primary defendant and Temesgen Yilma, Adefris Habte, JJ Properties Management PLC, TTH Trading PLC, Boston Real Estate, and Mesfin Asmamaw as defendants, ranked second through seventh, respectively. The prosecution stated in its filing that the first two defendants were each accused of four out of the five crimes.
Some of these illicit activities involved the firms associated with them. According to the filing, the people and businesses were involved in abusing the power of attorney they had obtained to manage Cosmo Trading PLC.
It stated that the first and second defendants, who were authorized to manage Cosmo Trading’s assets, took advantage of this privilege and obtained a long-term loan of 61 million birr from Awash Bank.
The explanation stated, “The lender used 21 million birr from the stated amount to settle Cosmo’s debt with Hibret Bank, and the remaining 40 million birr were transferred to the company’s account at Awash.”
In addition to the 61 million birr, Awash Bank also approved and provided an overdraft of 10 million birr to Cosmo Trading PLC for working capital.
Meanwhile, the prosecutor maintained that the defendants did not use the money for the company’s profit, but rather for their own or others’ gain.
Furthermore, the prosecutor asserted that in addition to breaching trust, the accused individuals and businesses were involved in money laundering and illicit financial activities, including illegal remittance activity.
In addition to 59 testimony papers, the prosecutor included 35 witnesses, some of whom are prominent individuals, to testify in court.
The 3rd Tax and Customs Crime Bench stated in its most recent verdict that the case could result in a sentence of up to 15 years in jail.
As a result, the case will be reviewed by three judges, as decided on Monday, July 15.
The case will be heard at the Federal Higher Court at Lideta Division on July 25.
The disagreement began between the first defendant and Cosmo Trading PLC, led by Haileyesus Mengistu, significant shareholders of the firm, and has been in court for over four years.
Since the Federal Supreme Court overturned the Federal High Court’s ruling in April, they also have another civil lawsuit pending at the Cassation Bench.
The Federal Supreme Court overturned a definitive ruling in favor of Cosmo Trading that had been rendered by the Federal High Court Civil Bench.
The business has filed an appeal with the Federal Supreme Court’s Cassation Bench, which has been deferred until November 5.
A little over four years ago, the first and second plaintiffs, JJ Property Management PLC and Azeb Mihretab, a significant shareholder and general manager of JJ Property, filed a case in the high court against Haileyesus Mengistu, the first defendant and major shareholder of Cosmo Trading, to settle a dispute in which the first defendant had promised to transfer 19.9 million birr worth of company shares to the second plaintiff but had not followed through on the agreement.
The first defendant argued in his defense that he was coerced into signing the contract against his will.
He claimed that when he signed the agreement, he was being held captive and facing threats to his life, as he had received 50 million birr as collateral from people connected to the plaintiffs through a seven-story building in the Wolo Sefer neighborhood of Bole that is registered under the Cosmo name.
