Four years after the UK’s National Crime Agency arrested Malawi-born businessperson Zuneth Sattar over bribery allegations, he faces his long-awaited day in court tomorrow in London. The scroll of charges implicates a list of senior officials previously disclosed and a senior military official who has never been charged with any crimes at home in Malawi. JACK McBRAMS AND GOLDEN MATONGA After years of swirling allegations, leaks, denials, and diplomatic drama, the man widely accused of orchestrating one of the most brazen corruption schemes in Malawi’s history is now officially in the dock—this time not in Lilongwe or Blantyre, but in the heart of London. Zuneth Sattar is scheduled to appear before the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday, May 31, 2025, to face an explosive list of charges under the UK’s Bribery Act. At exactly 11:00 a.m. in Courtroom 08, under the jurisdiction of the Central London Magistrates’ Court, Sattar will be arraigned on 18 counts—most of them for allegedly bribing senior Malawian government officials to secure lucrative contracts. The charges paint a damning portrait of systematic bribery involving Malawi’s top political and public service elite. Among those named as recipients of bribes are the previous Vice President, the late Saulos Klaus Chilima; State House Chief of Staff, Prince Kapondamgaga; former Inspector General of Police, George Kainja; former Solicitor General and Anti-Corruption Bureau Director General, Reyneck Matemba; and former Malawi Defence Force, Counsel Brigadier General Dan Kuwali—among others. While the majority of the officials mentioned have previously been charged with Sattar-related corruption cases at home, Kuwali, a serving senior officer in the Malawi Defence Force (MDF), was not. Each count details a calculated attempt to “obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business” by greasing the palms of powerful Malawian officials. Most of the alleged bribes occurred between 2020 and 2021, a period during which Sattar’s companies secured millions of dollars’ worth of contracts in Malawi, ranging from military supplies to immigration equipment. The charges stem from a wide-ranging investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which has worked closely with Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). According to the Standard Court List for Westminster Magistrates' Court, Sattar is being prosecuted under sections 6 and 11 of the UK Bribery Act 2010, which outlaws the bribery of foreign public officials. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine—but some, such as the corporate bribery charge linked to his Xavier Limited, are indictable only, meaning they could eventually lead to a Crown Court trial. Authorities further seek to seize property from Sattar if he is found guilty. Notably, this will be the first time Sattar appears in a criminal court to answer these specific allegations. While Malawian authorities have previously frozen his accounts and investigated numerous public officials over his dealings, attempts to have him extradited or tried in Malawi have so far been unsuccessful. His appearance in a UK court marks a dramatic shift in the legal saga. The Malawian officials implicated in the case are not expected to be formally charged with any crimes in the UK, according to a lawyer who has previously represented some of the suspects in Malawi courts. The case has implications that go far beyond Sattar himself. It strikes at the heart of Malawi’s governance, implicating current and former senior government figures, and raises urgent questions about how public procurement decisions were made—and who benefited. The Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ) has, over the years, extensively reported on Sattar's alleged corrupt dealings with the Malawi government. The businessman denies any wrongdoing. The arrest Sattar was arrested by the UK National Crime Agency in 2021 in a joint operation with Malawian officials for paying “bribes to politically exposed persons to influence various Malawi government departments to corruptly award contracts” to companies under his control. The arrest was followed by simultaneous raids at Sattar-linked properties both in Lilongwe and Leicester, where the businessman, now a British citizen, now resides. Officials previously compared the scale of the scandal to the so-called ‘capture’ of the state for private gain in South Africa during the last decade, involving the Gupta family. But in landlocked Malawi, which is near the bottom of many development indicators, the looting of public resources comes at an even higher cost. The Sattar investigation was once described by former Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Martha Chizuma as “a watershed moment for the country in as far as the anti-corruption fight is concerned.” “It goes to the heart of the corruption problem in the country. If we deal with this case, we are going to shake the foundations of corruption in this country,” Chizuma once told the Financial Times. UK investigators focused on how Sattar-linked companies acquired contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to supply the police and army with equipment at allegedly massively overpriced rates. Until the Chizuma-led ACB started going after officials in the Chakwera administration, there appeared at some point the Malawi version of the investigation would also prove the most consequential ever conducted. Late Vice President Saulos Chilima, Minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa, former ACB Director General Reyneck Matemba, police chief George Kainja, and a host of other officials were arrested and charged with various crimes. Sattar’s own right-hand man, Ashok Nair, was arrested. But the bureau started meeting resistance, in court and outside, culminating in the shocking arrest of Chizuma on trumped-up charges by the police. In 2014, a donor-funded audit into the Cashgate looting named companies linked to Sattar as suspected suppliers of riot gear and weapons to the state. The contracts were later declared valid by Mutharika’s government. “Just these few months, I’ve seen how much Malawi is losing to corruption, billions and billions, especially through public procurement,” Chizuma once told the media. “I know that money ought to have gone to schools and hospitals, but it has gone to some greedy few people.” But “I have all the hope now” that the vicious cycle of looting can be broken, because an “active citizenry” wants to see change, she added. “Corruption is not committed by super beings. It is committed by people like us. And that means people like us can deal with it.” This article was produced by the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ), a non-profit centre for investigative journalism.
