Source & Author: Undercurrent News
A Spanish-owned fishing company that stands accused of fishing illegally in Namibian waters has had its assets seized, reports All Africa.
Atlantic Ocean Management — a firm registered in Namibia and whose money has now been seized by Namibia’s prosecutor general — is in court in Namibia on charges that it was fishing illegally in Namibian waters.
However, Alberto Iglesias Martinez and Telmo Gonzales Alonso — the two shareholders in the Namibian company — said their fishing operations are actually in Angola and they are only using the Namibian company to repatriate profits to a holding company in Spain.
The company must be registered in Namibia because economic problems in Angola have made it impossible for corporations operating in that country to repatriate foreign currency out of the country, they claimed.
Martinez and Alonso requested that the state “immediately release and pay out the amount of $886,722 (about NAD 11.4 million) held in [an] account… to the account of Fish Spain SL.”
Prosecutor general Martha Imalwa laid claim to the money under the terms of the prevention of criminal activities act. Imalwa first obtained a preservation order in September last year, which expired on May 20 this year.
She then moved again to obtain a second preservation order on an ex-parte basis (without having to inform the other party).
Atlantic Ocean Management’s lawyers said Imalwa was already in possession of evidence that the fishing company was indeed a fishing license holder in Angola and that the money paid into the Bank Windhoek account was derived from legal sources.
Click here for the full story.