The Federal High Court of Lideta Civil Bench gives final verdict on high profile business individuals on the Cosmo Trading PLC case, with a ruling in favor of the defendants.
Owners of Cosmo Trading have also filed a compensation case of over 25 million birr in expense incurred in connection to the legal proceedings.
A little over three years ago, the first and second plaintiffs, JJ property Management PLC and Azeb Mihretab, a major shareholder and general manager of JJ property, filed a case to the high court against the major shareholder of Cosmo Trading and first defendant, Haileyesus Mengistu, for the settle of a case in which the first defendant agreed to transfer 19.9 million birr worth of shares at the company to the second plaintiff but failed to proceed as per the agreement.
In his defense, the first defendant claimed that he was forced to sign the agreement without his will. He argued that he was detained and threatened for his life when he signed the agreement as he received 50 million birr from parties associate with the plaintiffs through collateral of a seven story building that is located around Wolo Sefer, Bole and registered under Cosmo.
On its judgment, the 5th Civil Bench of the court that examined the case stated that the share selling contract agreement was conducted without full willingness of either party and was thus ruled as an invalidated contract agreement and in regards to registration as per related commercial code and other related laws and proclamations, the court also cited that it doesn’t have legal grounds regarding formality or registration or non examination, since the contract agreement was void.
During the lawsuit process, the 1st defendant was found to have better proved that the share transfer contract agreement which he signed on August 5, 2018 regarding the company, namely, Cosmo Trading, was forcefully done through threatening of him and his families’ lives by the evidences of human witnesses and documental evidences.
On the flipside, the evidences presented by the plaintiffs were unable to conclusively prove that the defendant signed these contract agreements without threats, forcefulness or his free will.
In general, it was proved that the share selling contract agreement was done by threatening and forceful means, which led the court to decide that the contract agreement entered between the plaintiff and 1st defendant to sell the shares of Cosmo Trading plc as revoked pursuant to the provision of civil code no. 1678/A/, 1706 and revised family law article 218, 306 and the provisions of Federal Supreme Court cassation file no. 46490, 54827, 103151.
“The litigation of the plaintiffs’ claiming that the defendant must transfer the title deed of shares based on the obligation he signed, is thus not acceptable,” the verdict read.
Following the final verdict given by the 5th Bench, the defendant likewise filed a claim for the plaintiffs to compensate the expense he lost in related with the court process. The 1st defendant argued that the expense was well over 25 million birr. He claimed that they had to commit to settle five percent of the property, which is estimated at over 500 million birr, for their lawyers and other court expenses.
The case which is still under fire, owing the other criminal charge tags from the office of the Attorney General of the Ministry of Justice, is expected to appear in court in the first week of June.
The Attorney General filed massive criminal charges on ten individuals and companies in relation to involvement with eight criminal acts including money laundering, financing of terrorism, illegally confiscating others property and illegal money transfer.
The charge was filed at the Federal High Court- Lideta Criminal Bench and indicated that seven individuals and three companies, have been sued on allegation of criminal acts that they did from 2016.
The individuals that were sued are Azeb Miretab, Efrem Mulatu, Temesgen Yilma, Adefres Habte, Daniel Tibebu and Mesfin Asmamaw. The companies included on the charge file are; JJ Properties Management PLC, TTH Trading PLC and Boston Real-estate.
The file indicated that the individuals were involved in an illegal act that entailed forceful confiscation of a seven floor hotel property owned by Cosmo Trading PLC, located at Wolo Sefer, Bole and was confiscated as collateral for the compensation of a loan.
The charges stated as follows: Efrem (Defendant 3) had swayed Haileyesus Mengistu, major shareholder of Cosmo, to take a loan from Azeb (Defendant 2) when he was faced with a liquidity crunch.
Azeb and Efrem (Defendant 2 and 3) were witness signatories to the traditional agreement. In addition, the collateral for the loan was the seven-storey building which has an estimated worth of 250 million birr, the charge stated.
According to the charge, whilst the two parties had agreed on a 50 million birr loan, only 3.2 million birr was transferred from Azeb’s United Bank account to Cosmo Trading PLC of the same bank.
The charge further states, that the defendants accused Cosmo Trading PLC for not paying the 50 million birr (of which they only gave 3.2 million) and as a result forcefully secured the property that the company placed as collateral. JJ Property Management PLC bought the company for 60 million birr, despite the company not having any legal registration.
Following this acquisition, Azeb and Temesgen (Defendant 2 and 4) got the right to administer Cosmo Trading PLC. Using this privilege, they received a 61 million birr long term loan from Awash Bank using Cosmo’s 7 storey building as collateral.
From the 61 million birr approved by Awash bank, 21 million birr went into paying the loan that the company had at United Bank (Friday, the 22nd of March, 2019). The remainder, 40 million birr, was wired to Cosmo’s account the following Monday. (25th March, 2019).
The charge indicated that on the same day Cosmo received the 40 million, from the amount, 32.5 million was wired to JJ Property Management’s account, of which Azeb is a major shareholder and general manager whilst Temesgen has the power of attorney.
According to the charge from the stated date of the first money transfer, several similar money transfers had been done to different accounts of individuals and companies from the remainder of the 40 million birr.
Some of the transfers on individual accounts are stated as money sent from abroad for different residents, which the Attorney General called for witnesses on the charge.
The charge file claimed that the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 9th defendant conducted illegal banking businesses as well as involvement in money transfer that affected the foreign currency revenue that the government obtains.
Apart from the stated amount, an additional ten million birr over a draft short term loan was released by Awash Bank to the company in August 2019.
The charge claimed that in exclusion of the 21 million birr paid to the United Bank for the loan settlement by Awash Bank, the rest of the money was spent on unrelated businesses that were not in direct benefit to Cosmo.
The Attorney General’s charge also claimed that the 2nd defendant gave a misleading testimony to the Federal Police in March 2017 on police investigations in relation to the USD 1.8 million transfers.
Court gives decree on tycoons’ over Cosmo Trading saga
Ethio telecom launches Smart Classroom at AAU
Ethio telecom officially launched Smart Classroom at Addis Ababa University Arat Kilo Campus in Collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
Ethio telecom has established the smart classroom with a prime objective of ensuring wider inclusive learning and higher quality education. For this, the smart classroom has been built having the features: flexible offer, owns the latest standard functionality, easy to adapt, ideahub, visualizer, electronic board and camera. It also enables to provide online teaching, live class, course authoring, mobility, teaching and learning management. The smart classroom will also play key roles for the institute in enabling digital transformation of education, enhancing teaching quality, reducing teaching cost and assisting to acquire teaching & learning data.
According to Ethio telecom, the smart classroom will have a paramount significance for teachers in making teaching at their fingertips, backing up their theoretical education with technology driven laboratories, making their teaching methods adaptable, real-time student status checking and adjust teaching progress, automatic markings & generating grade reports and acquire students learning data It will also empower students to virtually attend classes any time and any place, specially for those who can’t be physically available, get blended learning, richer experience than a traditional learning and personalized learning experience.
The smart classroom launched is believed to serve as a spring board to replicate it in other universities across the nation, to save the expense previously incurred on the purchase of inputs for experiments and to halt the dangers that can be occurred during the laboratory experiment related tasks as well as to bridge the digital divide between those who have access to utilize the digital technology and those who are left behind.
In the past years, Ethio telecom has given due emphasis to the educational sector and has directly been involving accordingly. For instance, last year, it built 66 digital learning centers in selected high schools nationwide and equipped them with the necessary learning facilities such as computers, furniture and technologies aimed at ensuring the overall excellence in the education sector.
Brace for dry spell, depressed rainfall experts alarm
Dry conditions are now being expected in the northern parts of the country; warns IGAD’S Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC).
ICPAC announced that the June to September, 2023 forecast shows high chances of drier than usual conditions across the northern parts of the Greater Horn of Africa (GHA).
Accordingly, Djibouti, Eritrea, central and northern Ethiopia, western Kenya, northern Uganda, and much of South Sudan and Sudan are expected to receive insufficient rainfall until the end of the season.
ICPAC’s analysis also indicates an increased likelihood of warmer than usual conditions over the entire region, particularly over northern Sudan, parts of southern and central to western Ethiopia, central and northern Kenya, central and northern Somalia, and coastal parts of Tanzania.
The June to September rainfall season is particularly important for the northern regions of the GHA, where it contributes to more than 50 percent of the annual total rainfall.
ICPAC Director, Guleid Artan called for heightened vigilance, stating, “As the conditions we forecast could very well increase food insecurity in the region. Depressed rainfall, coupled with warmer than usual temperatures, are likely to affect crop productivity, with the risk of crop wilting and a hastened decline in pasture and water availability.”
He appealed to IGAD’s partners to, “Stay mobilized and continue to respond to the crisis where 49 million people are still highly-food insecure in the IGAD region.”
In most parts of the region, above average rainfall was recorded during the March to May, 2023 season, bringing some respite to the communities most affected by five consecutive failed rainfall seasons in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.
“It is now very likely that we will transition from La Niña to El Niño between July and September,” explained Hussen Seid, Climate Modeling Expert at ICPAC.
“At this stage, there is no indication of the strength or duration of El Niño, but in general it is associated with depressed rainfall between June and September in the north of the region and wetter conditions between October and December in the equatorial parts. So, we must get prepared for much wetter weather towards the end of the year. We encourage our users to consult our weekly and monthly updates that have a high degree of predictability,” the Climate Modeling Expert further elaborated.
ICPAC is a designated Regional Climate Centre by the World Meteorological Organization.
Trade ministry goes at all lengths to align a proclamation
An imminent amendment of a two decade old law undergoes re-revision by the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) for the re-establishment of a proclamation for the Chamber of Commerce.
The new proclamation now places three stages of organizational structures.
At the first draft discussions which dated a few months back, backlash ensued following the proclamation being title as ‘Chamber of Commerce’.
The opposition mostly stemmed from industry actors and other business associations who strongly cited that the description of the proclamation was not inclusive with regards to representing the activities and insisted the formation of a separate association that mirrored them.
In the latest draft proclamation, the ministry has now included the industry sector and given the proclamation title under, ‘Chambers of Commerce and Industry’, which has been well received by the members of the industry sector.
During the discussions held on Saturday May 13, participants appreciated the move to which representatives of the Ministry explained that it was a due response done on their part to accommodate those who will be members of the chamber.
However, a segment of the industry sector representatives criticized that even though the proclamation mentioned the industry sector on its description, it did not mention anything in its articles about the specific sector.
The draft proclamation put three structures for the administration of the chambers. Based on that, the council has been included on the structure with a seat in between the general assembly which is the higher body of the chamber and the board of directors that is assigned by the general assembly.
The newly revised law did however not state the membership conditions, but assured that it will be done so in a directive that will follow the proclamation.
The first draft document on its description indicated that membership will be mandatory for businesses, and companies, who have multiple branches throughout the country who will be members of the national chamber rather than the city chamber.
Regarding membership for those who have multiple branches in more than one region or city, the re-reviewed draft proclamation stated that their membership will be determined by a directive that will be issued after the amendment of the proclamation.
The chamber of commerce and sectorial association establishment proclamation 341/2003 which was last ratified two decades ago has been criticized by different stakeholders. Multiple papers and studies have been developed on the aim to improve the proclamation and government on its end has also facilitated several discussions to better the proclamation.
The previous description document which was issued by MoTRI also acknowledged the same and cited that the document read that prior to and after ratification of the proclamation, it did not get consent from the business community hence the stir of controversy.
Organization structure, membership, representation, powers and duties, were some of the areas that were identified as sources of debate.
The document added that the proclamation should be amended on the consideration of the sector benefit, the global situation and economic growth.
In order to solve the challenges and make the chambers fruitful and helpful to the economic growth and congruency with government policies and other laws, the new coming proclamation has been drafted.
The draft highlighted that the various controversial points in the current proclamation will be addressed.
