Claim
The Daily Nation Zambia Newspaper published an article on 6th September 2021, stating that the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) had seized about 10 bank accounts since 12 August 2021 elections as a result of suspected illegalities. The article also stated that there has been numerous attempts to transfer huge amounts of money to offshore accounts after the election. Furthermore, there has been there has been rumors of politician’s accounts been seized after the 2021 general elections on various social media platforms.
Rating Justification
The Fact Checking process has established as true the claim made by the Daily Nation that about 10 accounts have been seized by FIC. In a video fact checked by iVerify, on 5th September 2021 during the Sunday Interview show on ZNBC TV hosted by Grevazio Zulu, Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) Director General Ms. Mary Chirwa explained that analyzed documents by FIC show that the institution has seized about 10 accounts during the election transition. She said, “In this transition, from the FIC point of view we have seized about 10 accounts and have liaised with the law enforcements and told them why the accounts were seized”. Due to the numerous allegations from the public, pin pointing politicians’ names to these accounts, Ms Chirwa explained the role of the FIC is to disseminate analyzed information to law enforcement agencies and not publish the names of the account holders to the general public.
