The controversial businessman and DPP fixer Leston Mulli is back in the news as he demands K11 603 935 990.03 from government as compensation for destruction suffered during the July 20 2011 protests. Mulli is claiming this though damages to his businesses.
The politically-connected businessperson’s claim comes after Mulli already received coupon bonds worth K3 048 557 708.71 from government in 2019 and now matured to be in hard cash today.
Payments were made in an out-of-court settlement that at the time private practice lawyer Bright Theu described as “dubious” and “questionable”.
Now at the expense of the taxpayer, Mulli is seeking further K11 billion compensations for the damages of his two companies Sunrise Pharmaceuticals and Chombe Foods Limited —companies under Mulli Brothers Holdings Limited (MBHL).
According to court documents, Mulli through his lawyers Churchill & Norris of Tamando Chokhotho, said after calculating as at present the sum has risen to K1 billion after deducting K3 billion already paid “the balance is in the sum of K11 603 935 990.03.”
Mulli’s claim comes when government is even failing to collect K4.9 billion in loans that Mulli-owned companies obtained from the defunct State-controlled Malawi Savings Bank (MSB).
But the his lawyers state: “ We are of the view that it is in the interest of the government to settle thus matter expeditiously to avoid the sum rising to unmanageable proportions.”
MBHL is the largest beneficiary of the K6 billion toxic loans government took over from MSB, a then wholly State-owned commercial bank, sold in July 2015 to FDH Financial Holdings Limited.
