Ethiopia: Nearly 830 Million US Dollars Illegally BorrowedEthiopian Businessmen who were allegedly involved in high level corruption have illegally borrowed nearly 830 million US dollars against bank regulations, local media reported Friday.Documents of police indicated that all the businessmen have collected bank loans without having the amount of collateral that such require. The Ethiopian government has since last May launched an anti- corruption campaign against businessmen and high ranking officials including former defense minister Siye Abraha. Earlier, the Ethiopian Federal High Court ordered police to finalize their investigations into the cases of suspected corrupt business persons and their accomplices within 10 to 14 days. The court also ordered the Federal Audit Commission to speed up its investigation and present the findings as soon as possible. The order came after the police had asked for a further extension of time to come up with detailed and holistic results into the cases. However, defense lawyers of the suspects objected to an extension, saying the police relied on "pretexts" to be given more time to hold the suspects. |
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