By Tileni Mongudhi | 25 February 2025
Israeli diamond magnate Doron Cohen has entered the Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) heist fray as a person of interest.
This comes after the police have placed him at the robbery scene as an ‘onlooker’ on 18 January, when the seemingly foiled heist occurred.
The Issue has learnt that the authorities are now trying to determine whether there is more to Cohen’s presence at the robbery scene than mere coincidence.
Cohen’s lawyer, Richard Metcalfe, however, insists that his client is not under investigation but rather a state witness in the case.
“At no stage whatsoever has he been informed that he is a suspect,” Metcalfe says.
He says “Mr Cohen has deposed to a statement as a witness in the Namdia heist”, which is why he is not allowed to comment on the matter.
The attempted heist allegedly involves diamonds worth N$350 million.
Cohen attracted the attention of police investigators because of his close ties to some of the parties involved. The Issue has learnt that the businessman allegedly arrived at Namdia’s Windhoek premises after the police had already taken charge of the scene and detectives were sweeping the area for clues.
Investigators and other law-enforcement officials are now questioning why he was there, because his presence presents a series of coincidences.
Cohen is reported to have been close friends with Max Endjala, who died from a gunshot wound to the head he sustained at the robbery scene. Law-enforcement sources believe Endjala was a key player in the heist.
At the time of his death, Endjala was Trustco Group’s chief operations officer for internal and forensics investigations.
Cohen worked as general manager of Morse Investment between 2014 and 2016, which was at the time owned by Trustco.
Another coincidence is the fact that one of the armed response security companies to arrive at the crime scene first was Xiphos Protection Group, a company that is 40% owned by businessman Nino Kalondo, the son of former first lady Monica Geingos.
The Namibian three years ago reported that Kalondo and Cohen were business partners in at least two business ventures. Company records indicate that Xiphos is 60% owned by Gabriel Coetzee. Kalondo says there is no link between Cohen and Xiphos; that his past business relations with Cohen also had nothing to do with Namdia. He also says he no longer enjoys a cordial relationship with Cohen.
“His presence (if he indeed was at Namdia on the date of the incident) and his relationship with the late Endjala (if he had one) therefore have nothing to do with our company,” Kalondo has said in an emailed response.
Namdia sources told The Issue that the parastatal appointed the security company shortly after the robbery – without following its own internal procurement procedures.
The Issue understands that this decision was taken by a ‘crisis committee’.
“At all relevant times to this date, we believed and reasonably assumed that Namdia’s internal procurement rules and procedures had been complied with. We have no information suggesting that Namdia’s procurement rules and procedures were not followed, nor could we accept the blame if it is correct that internal procedures were not followed,” Kalondo says. Xiphos is currently hired to protect the Elisenheim gated estate in Windhoek’s Brakwater area, which is managed by Trustco.
Kalondo, however, says the company had no working relationship with Endjala, despite some of the residents stating that Endjala used to get involved in investigating and apprehending suspected burglars who breached the estate’s security.
Cohen has also had direct dealings with Namdia in the past.
His company, Nuska Technologies, previously scored a lucrative Namdia diamond valuation contract with the government. At the time the contract was awarded, Nuska Technologies was known as C-Sixty Investments.
Namdia did not respond to detailed questions sent to it last week.
CRIME SCENE
The police and security companies that responded to the scene on 18 January allegedly found that the parastatal’s power was cut, which disabled several of the building’s security functions.
On the day, Endjala allegedly parked his official Trustco vehicle at a friend’s house in Windhoek, after which he took the friend’s car to Trustco’s offices and parked it there.
He later walked to a nearby service station, where he was picked up by a vehicle that seemed to have taken him to Namdia’s premises. Reports indicate that the police found Namdia’s building and floor plans in Endjala’s car, including notes allegedly setting out the execution of the heist.
Investigators believe Endjala and another suspect, Sam Shololo, were smuggled into the premises in a third suspect, Joel Angula’s bakkie, and stayed in the vehicle for over an hour.
Angula allegedly then went to open a door that connects the Namdia staff parking lot and the office building.
He then allegedly bent over to fiddle with his shoe, which is believed to have been a signal to the accomplices in his bakkie that the coast was clear.
The Issue was also informed that closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showed Angula and the other two using spray paint to obscure some of the cameras on the premises.
They, however, did not manage to cover all of them. The three men allegedly went to the CCTV control room to track the security officials on the premises.
Footage also shows how the three men tied up diamond-sorting employees. One was assaulted with a gun on the head. The three suspects allegedly first waited for the employees to finish sorting and getting the diamonds ready for sale.
* Read the rest of this article at theissue.com.na
* This story was produced by The Issue
