How in heaven’s name a central bank ended up cashing out 158 million Br for iron bars, thinking that it was buying gold remains a mystery to all involved. Was it a simple crime that could be handled by police or did it involve a web of businessmen and officials both from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and Geological Survey of the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MoME), thus merits attention by anticorruption commission prosecutors. These have been questions federal investigators have been trying to uncover for months now.

Finally, prosecutors at the Federal Ethics and Anticorruption Commission have filed two charges involving 95 million Br and 63 million Br, both swindled from the bank in the name of selling gold. In one of the charges filed - with 22 pages - at the Federal High Court prosecutors have lined up 34 witnesses and close to 42 materials evidence hoping to convict 20 convicts and one company, Sofam Enterprise Plc.

Among this charged number one on the list is Seife Desta, long serving director of the Foreign Exchange Directorate at the NBE. He is accused of negligence in discharging his responsibilities of ensuring that his subordinates open the box upon receipt of the gold bars; that they should have checked the authenticity of licenses by the supplier; and authorizing payments of over 63 million Br to Mehammed Awel who supplied 301,252.23 grammes of steel scrapes - in six rounds - without them first checking the origin of the gold.

When the charges were read at the Federal High Court last week, Seife was in his office perhaps thinking that the day was like any other day, and not suspecting he was implicated in the largest scam ever made in this country, according to gossip. Unlike many charged together with him, he was never summoned by federal police and put under custody for investigation; neither was he served court subpoena before last week, claims gossip.

Actually, says gossip, it was lawyers from the central bank who were at the court to follow the case called him up when his name was mentioned there.