The Banjul Magistrates’ Court is on Tuesday expected to deliver its verdict in the trial of Austrian national Manuel Stofleth Mitterer on a charge of disobeying a lawful order.
Manuel has been accused of refusing investigators access to his computer.
It would be recalled that the police sometime ago initiated a criminal investigation against Manuel when his business partners Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Limbertus Van Andel suspected that he might have defrauded them of millions of dalasi.
The trio came together a few years ago to sell holiday apartments off-plan.
According to sources, the Austrian gave his Gambian and Dutch partners the assurance that the apartments were selling well in the European market.
“But when his partners started to ask questions about the proceeds, he reportedly told them that the money was converted to bitcoins. He could not still tell them anything about the proceeds,” one source familiar with the probe told this medium.
Today’s judgement will be keenly followed as it can either facilitate the investigation or stall it.
