Rebuttal - Our Hands Have No Stain
Correspondent | Thursday July 2, 2020 17:36
We consider the article to be defamatory and that it has been calculated by the author to not just misinform your readers about my wife and I, but to be also deliberately so malicious as to tarnish our good name and reputation in the construction industry and in the great Republic of Botswana.
The suggestion that we were ever “fired” from Sunshine Construction is false and just ridiculous. We decided to leave Sunshine Construction in 2017 in order to operate our own business in Botswana. However, the founder and majority shareholder of Sunshine Construction, Mr. Jian Liu requested and persuaded us to stay on in order to complete some of the projects that were ongoing that we had helped the company to achieve and that I was personally in charge of as the General Manager and minor shareholder of the Company. In good faith we agreed to stay on as we did..
The preposterous claim, that Mr. Jian Liu may have incurred some loss as a result of our involvement in some shady operation of “intricate networks of fraud…registering more than half a dozen companies masquerading as suppliers/subcontractors…creating false invoices and forging delivery of projects…money laundering and tax evasion, is not only offensive, false and malicious, but also unfortunate and silly as Mr. Jian Liu knows very well who the real perpetrator of such conduct is / was.
During our employment by Sunshine Construction the benefits and conditions of service were common to all employees including ourselves. These included housing (common accommodation), specific allowances, use of company transport and cooking.
At no point whatsoever did we ever make any business or financial transaction unless instructed and approved by Mr. Jian Liu singularly. At no point were we treated any differently or had what could be described as special privileges different from other employees of Sunshine Construction other than the fact that Mr. Yong Li and his wife Linlin Liu did the majority of work that made profits for the company.
Our contribution to the growth and viability of Sunshine construction is a matter of record.
While working for Sunshine Construction for more than eleven (11) years, Mr. Jian Liu offered to incrementally improve my shares to ultimately reach 50% with which I was to also be given powers to authorize, approve and execute business transactions except that Mr. Jian Liu remained the sole controller of ALL payments, income information, tax issues, and a personalized process of acquiring new projects.
We have parted ways with Sunshine Construction in May 2019.
We are now running our own business and completing what projects we do on time and to acceptable quality standards with no issues.
We challenge the originator of allegations against us to come out of their closet and bring forth the evidence. We can only hope that the due process of law will take its speedy cause and nab the culprit. We have faith in the integrity of the judicial process of Botswana and trust that this is not too far off.
We welcome and encourage any forensic investigation that may take place and stand ready to facilitate it should we have the opportunity to do so. We are happy to learn from the offending article in the Weekend Post that “all evidence is available to prove and demonstrate the truth”.
We state for the record that we do clean business. We don’t sanitize the truth and have no skeletons to hide. We respect and obey the laws of Botswana including payment of taxes and any other applicable fees for doing business in Botswana.