South Sudanese government minister James Hoth Mai overturns police seizure of luxury Melbourne home

The family of a South Sudan government minister have won a significant legal victory in an Australian court, overturning the seizure of a luxury Melbourne property.

Officers from the Australian Federal Police sought restraining orders over a lavish five-bedroom home in Narre Warren and an Audi car in 2017, with a court finding there were reasonable grounds to suspect the property was the proceeds of crime.

The home and car had been registered under the names of the son and daughter of South Sudan’s Labour Minister General James Hoth Mai, who arrived in Australia with their mother and other siblings on humanitarian visas in the early 2000s.

General Mai joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in 1983 when the second Sudanese civil war broke out, rising through the ranks to become the military’s Chief of Staff and served on the Joint Advisory Board during the peace process with Sudan.

His wife and children fled the violence in 1999 before being processed through refugee camps in Egypt and Indonesia, losing contact with General Mai until 2006.

When the court restrained the property and car in 2017, it was noted neither Mr Mai’s son nor daughter had declared any income to the ATO since 2009 and were on Centrelink benefits.

The Narre Warren home was bought in 2014 for $1.5 million and the Audi was bought for $35,274 in 2015 — with the funds coming from a business registered in Australia named Sportscars via Uganda.

In the years that followed, General Mai’s children fought and lost a series of court appeals before he joined a bid, alongside his wife, son and daughter, in 2020 to remove the home and car from the restraining orders by proving, on the balance of probabilities, they were not bought with the proceeds of crime.

The case was heard over seven days in Victoria’s County Court in June last year, with Judge Andrew Fraatz handing down a decision in favour of the applicants on December 23.

In his findings, Judge Fraatz accepted evidence from General Mai that the funds used to purchase the property came from lawful rental income on two properties he owned in South Sudan.

“I accept the funds transferred to Australia were earned by the Minister from his rental properties, so there was no reason for him to suspect that the funds were the proceeds of unlawful activity,” he said.

“There are no reasonable grounds for the Court to suspect that the funds were proceeds of crime, because the source of funds has been established.”

Judge Fraatz rejected an expert report produced for the Australian Federal Police which called the funds used to buy the Narre Warren home a “large and unexplained amount of money”.

The court was told that General Mai, his wife, son or daughter had never been charged with offences in Australia or overseas.

The judge accepted evidence that General Mai was gifted two properties in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, in the mid-2000s.

One, titled Block K3K was gifted in May 2007 by Brigadier Martin Kenyi, wth General Mai building a house on the block which was later leased to the Government of South Africa for “consular facilities” and earning $US1.41 million ($A2.12 million) in rental income between 2009 and 2016.

The second, called Khor William, was given to General Mai in 2008 for his service by the military, which he later leased to William Mac Mamer, of the South Sudan Ministry of Defence, for a period of three years at $US12,000 ($A17,958) per month for three years between 2012 and 2015.

Judge Fraatz said he was satisfied the evidence in relation to these properties were authentic and the “significant income” from these properties was used to purchase the Narre Warren property.

The home and Audi will be excluded from the restraining order and further hearings will determine costs.

Source: https://www.news.com.au/national/courts-law/south-sudanese-government-minister-james-hoth-mai-overturns-police-seizure-of-luxury-melbourne-home/news-story/dfdbe6d29d608eeacabe06e891e7a171