JUBA – The Ugandan anti-corruption court has sentenced Lawrence Lual Malong—a South Sudanese self-proclaimed “tycoon” –to six years in prison over fraud.

Malong was jailed alongside a Congolese national Mike Lota and a Ugandan lawyer known as Gavana Thaddeus Zhikusoka alias James Byaruhanga. The three were found guilty of defrauding an Ethiopian $1.9 million in a gold scandal.

Malong bore the heaviest sentence of six-year jail term while Lota and Zhikusoka were sentenced to 4 years and 5 years jail terms respectively. The three were jailed on Tuesday, August 17, 2021.

The three were arrested on March 21, 2019, after Ugandan police officers ambushed them at a hotel in an area known as Kabalagala in Kampala.

They appeared before the Buganda Road Court Grade One Magistrate Ketty Acaya to answer charges of obtaining money by pretense from Dessie Wagnew on account that they would deliver 150Kgs of gold.

However, they pleaded not guilty to the charges forcing the Ugandan authorities to remand them at the Luzira Prison for further investigations.

The court heard in 2019 during the mention of their case that Wagnew met Malong through another mutual friend and then they had a discussion on how they would try their hands in the gold trade.

Malong is said to have promised the Ethiopian that he would facilitate hid gold trade because he had a license for the exportation of the commodity to China, Dubai, and other markets.

And, after Wagnew paid the money as they had agreed, he was given endless promises that the gold which they would import from Congo and export through Uganda would only be cleared by the Ugandan authorities after reaching a ‘minimum weight of 600Kgs’.

Frustrated and yearning for the answers, Wagnew opened up a case against the three accused persons in the Ugandan courts to pursue justice leading to the arrests.

Ugandan media also reported that the complainant had lamented in the court that he risked losing his property in South Africa if he failed to retrieve his $1.9 million injected in the dubious deal.

‘Upcoming tycoon’

Malong shot to fame in 2017 after he made a sensational claim that he had donated millions of dollars to the Red Cross. But the organization quickly rubbished these claims.

Malong, still in his early 30s, took social media by storm after being covered by a Kenyan TV station where he bragged about his wealth live on TV.

Asked about the source of his wealth, the youthful South Sudanese said: “My Lord Jesus Christ blessed me; I fly on private jets… I live in Presidential suites… I am blessed,” he said, as he revealed that he would spend $2500 per night in expensive Nairobi hotels.

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