JollofNews was on Tuesday at The Gambia’s Ministry of Justice in Banjul to inquire about the case file of an Austrian couple that the police sent to the country’s law office for review and legal advice, but which is still gathering dust from the shelves.
The national police sometime last year launched a criminal investigation against Manuel Stofleth Mitterer and Angelika Mitterer after investors Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Limbertus van Andel lodged a criminal complaint against Manuel.
Tamba, Andel and Mitterer are shareholders in the Kasumai Real Estate agency through which they built The Gambia’s tallest apartment tower block in Bijilo called the Bitcoin Tower. Tamba and Andel own 70% of the shares in Kasumai Real Estate while Manuel holds 30%, but they suspect their Austrian partner of withholding millions of dalasi of proceeds from the Bitcoin Tower apartment sales. Manuel has reportedly admitted in the subsequent police investigation that he lodged the proceeds from the sale of apartments into his cryptocurrency wallets. He, however, refused police investigators access to the details of the cryptocurrency transactions.
Consequently, he and his spouse were charged with disobeying lawful order by allegedly refusing police access to their laptop computer. Their case has now reached crunch stage as Manuel’s lawyers made a “no-case-to-answer” submission more than a fortnight ago to which the defense responded last week.
The smartly-dressed DPP Yusuf was too busy to be approached for comment on the Stofleths’ file when he emerged from his office, which coincided with our visit there.
