Prominent SSD Businessmen Facing Imminent Arrest Over Lost Cargo Worth 142M

NCMP – A Senior National Security Official has stated that two famous South Sudanese businessmen are facing arrest over the loss of two oil shipments worth USD 142 million.

According to trustworthy sources in the Ministries of Petroleum, National Security Service, and Finance and Planning, two businessmen, Kur Ajing Ater and Paulino Diing Madol, conspired with high authorities in Khartoum to steal two shipments of oil belonging to the people of South Sudan.

During the continuing inquiry into the disappearance of two cargoes, an official privy said that the two people are among the few elites who have privatized natural resources, notably oil, which contributes approximately 98% of the country’s income.

They have consistently been assigned oil cargoes ranging from 2 to 4 cargoes every month. However, the government chose to assign two oil shipments to the Ministry of Finance and Planning in order to pay public officials’ wages and organized security forces such as the army.

“Instead of paying the money to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the two businessmen colluded with officials in Khartoum and forged previous documents issued by the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Finance and Planning to divert proceeds of oil sales from the two cargoes valued at USD 142 million to their private accounts in Dubai, UAE,” the official stated.

According to the source, Tut Gatluak Manime, the Presidential Advisor on Security who has been providing political cover to the two businessmen, was also engaged in the arrangement.

According to preliminary investigations, Paulino Diing Madol, who is implicated in this scandal, spent nearly USD 20 million to bribe senior officials in the President’s Office, including Executive Director James Deng Wal and other officials in the Ministry of Petroleum, Ministry of Finance, and National Security Service, in order to “kill the ongoing investigations and avoid arrest and possible prosecution before the court of law” for the heinous crimes committed.

However, a renowned political analyst who chose anonymity for security concerns has urged President Salva Kiir Mayardit not to interfere and to allow these persons to face punishment in the same manner as a Member of Parliament Deng Tong implicated in the theft of USD 42 million was.