A South Sudanese businessman who helped expose alleged state capture has been kidnapped at gunpoint in Nairobi and bundled across the border and detained in South Sudan’s capital, his friends and family say.

Gaddhaffy Athorbey Guiet Chuit, known as Gaddhaffy, had been speaking about alleged corruption by Crawford Capital, a private digital payments company whose beneficiaries “include political elites and their close relatives” in South Sudan, according to a United Nations commission.

Crawford Capital, which is incorporated in South Sudan, was presented by the Juba government as part of a digital transformation strategy to manage the collection of taxes and fees. But both the US and UN allege that Crawford is used as a vehicle for the diversion of state revenues.

A report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan last year accused Crawford Capital of usurping the official tax authority and capturing “an inordinate share of non-oil revenues”. Under a 2019 agreement, the company retains a 75 per cent profit share of some of the fees it collects, the UN said.

The US state department said last month that “corrupt officials and entities, including Crawford Capital, Ltd., have siphoned money from South Sudan’s treasury and stolen foreign assistance funds intended to support the South Sudanese people”.

The US made the statement while introducing visa bans for unnamed South Sudan officials it accused of undermining peace efforts, as the country teeters on the verge of...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicEFVX3lxTE9XWFJMTFpCN0hfc2ZUQk9lRnph...