Crime investigators from Europe are now poised to lend operational support to their counterparts in The Gambia as local investigators appear to have hit a dead-end in their investigation of suspected cryptocurrency scam against Austrians Manuel Di Stofleth Mitterer and his partner Angelika Mitterer.
“The investigators are from Europe,” said Commissioner Abdoulie Sanneh on Friday as he led state prosecutors in the trial of the Austrians over their refusal to allow the Gambian police to gain access to details of their cryptocurrency transactions, regarding the Bitcoin Tower.
The Bitcoin Tower, which boasts 32 apartments, an underground car park and a restaurant, is a project that a Gambian national Ebrima Solomon Tamba, Dutch Marcel Lambertus Teunis van Andel and Austrian Manuel Di Stofleth Mitterer partnered to sell off-plan. Solomon provided the land while he and Marcel pooled together their financial resources to provide capital for the project’s implementation. Though Manuel did not have any money at the outset of the project’s implementation, Solomon and Marcel decided to grant him 30% shares while they each own 35% shares. The Austrian was allowed to become a 30% shareholder because of his expertise in building construction and marketing.
Some of the Bitcoin Tower apartments have reportedly sold for millions of dalasi but whenever Solomon and Marcel enquired about the proceeds, Manuel would tell them the monies were lodged in his cryptocurrency wallets and vaults. The duo lodged a criminal complaint against him and when he was invited for questioning at the national police HQ in Banjul, he refused investigators access to his laptop computer in which the details are stored.
Consequently, he was charged with the alleged offence of disobeying a lawful order and is undergoing trial at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.
The police could not still have access to the details of the transactions but in what could be described as an important development, Commissioner Sanneh said at Friday’s sitting that investigators from Europe will be now involved in the case.
