KEELING MONEY HOME IS NO OFFENCE, SAYS ECONOMIST

By ADRIAN MWANZATHERE is nothing wrong and sinister about keeping huge amounts of money in any currency in homes as long as it is genuinely acquired, Economist and Luangeni UPND losing candidate, Noel Nkhoma has said. And police spokesperson, Esther Katongo said Faith Musonda, the owner of the house in New Kasama in which a …

KEELING MONEY HOME IS NO OFFENCE, SAYS ECONOMIST
By ADRIAN MWANZATHERE is nothing wrong and sinister about keeping huge amounts of money in any currency in homes as long as it is genuinely acquired, Economist and Luangeni UPND losing candidate, Noel Nkhoma has said. And police spokesperson, Esther Katongo said Faith Musonda, the owner of the house in New Kasama in which a whooping K65, 330,000 and US$ 57, 350 was found was not yet guilty. Ms Katongo said the police would wait the owner to avail herself and justify the source.“They are not yet guilty, it is a matter of continued investigations. The conclusion of the investigations will determine whether the matter goes to court or not,” she said. Mr Nkhoma said there was no law stating how much an individual could keep in their homes.Police in Lusaka on Friday found more than K65 million suspected to have been unlawfully obtained from a house in Lusaka’s New Kasama area belonging to Ms Faith Musonda. The money was recovered in an operation conducted by the Police after a tip. A further search discovered a safe containing $57, 350 which was later seized and handed over to the Bank of Zambia for safe keeping and further investigations. But Mr Nkhoma said the police and other investigative wings needed to treat the matter as a suspicious transaction and not a crime because they did not know the source of the money.“It is not a crime for anyone to have huge stacks of money, the only problem is that it’s safer when cash is in banks and if they think there was foul play then they should treat it as a suspicious transaction,” he said. Mr Nkhoma however said that there was need to keep money in banks so that inflation could be controlled in the country. He said that as long as the source of the money was legitimate then there was no offence committed by Ms Musonda.“It is straight forward as long as the money is legitimate and is not proceeds from a crime syndicate then they will have to return it because there is nothing wrong,” he said.