Malawi cash heist fugitive, Limumba Karim died with Ginimbi
One of the victims in a road accident that claimed the lives of Zimbabwean socialite and businessman Genius Ginimbi Kadungure and friends was a wanted man in Malawi over an alleged US$30 million heist.
The accident happened Sunday morning along the Borrowdale road when Ginimbi’s speeding Rolls Royce was involved in a head-on collision with a Honda Fit before veering off the road, crashing into trees and bursting into flames.
Ginimbi and friends, Moana a fitness bunny whose birthday they had celebrated the previous night, Limumba Karim of Malawi and one Elisha from Mozambique.
Malawi publication Nyasa Times reports that Karim was a fugitive from justice, wanted in connection with the country’s biggest 2013 corruption scandal known as as ‘Cashgate.’
The scandal saw over US$32 million being siphoned out of government coffers and resulted in donors who bankroll the country’s budget by up to 40% pulling the plug on aid.
Karim had faced money laundering charges related to the scandal involving US$2.6 million before he escaped justice and was reportedly based in South Africa.
His bail was revoked in January 2017 and an arrest warrant issued after he failed to attend court prompting his lawyer Wapona Kita to renounce agency. He told the Lilongwe High Court:
I would like to discharge myself from this case as counsel for seventh accused person Mr Limumba Karim.
I can’t get got of him. I don’t know where he is, he is out of reach and since there is no word from him I can’t continue standing here representing him without communication when I don’t know his whereabouts.
Karim is reportedly survived by three children, one in South Africa, a newly born in Mozambique and one in Malawi.
His remains are expected to be repatriated to Malawi for burial.
–ZBC