Corporate crime in Namibia

Abstract

Abstract provided by author

This dissertation is premised upon the proposition of examining corporate crime in Namibia and making a detailed analysis on how effective the current legislation is in curbing corporate crime. It focuses on the different statutes that are in place with regard to corporate crime in Namibia, but more especially it looks at how effective the legislation is and what measures the government needs to put in place in order to be on track with international obligations with regard to fighting corporate crime. Since Namibia is part of the global community it is not only required to fight such crimes at national or domestic level but also at international level in order to have sound investment policies. Corruption has been on the increase nationally and internationally thus there is an obligation on state parties under the UN Convention on corruption to fight corruption with every possible means including asset recovery. It is for this reason that Namibia passed the Anti Corruption Act 8 of 2003 to establish the Anti Corruption Commission which is responsible for investigating issues of corruption. Namibia did not have an Anti Money laundering laws and thus money laundering has been rife as the perpetrators see it as a potential to launder their money, it has only been treated as a common law crime. The Financial Intelligence Act 3 of 2007 was also passed in order to combat money laundering activities; this Act compliments and gives effect to the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 29 of 2004 in that they all seek to establish the financial intelligence centre. Furthermore Namibia is under an obligation in terms of the rules of private international law to cooperate in matters relating to fighting money laundering, organised crime and corruption. Finally in order to succeed in these matters Namibia needs to have the mechanisms such as institutions and legislation to deal with corporate crime.