€165,000 Debt: When a Private Loan Raises Questions About Legal Certainty in The Gambia

Written by: Seringe S.T. Touray

A new lawsuit against Ebrima Solomon Tamba, a Gambian businessman and shareholder in Kasumai Real Estate, the company behind Bitcoin Tower and The Edge apartment developments with Austrian investors, raises questions about contracts, property rights and how state authorities handle disputes involving international investors.

Tamba has publicly confirmed that he borrowed €165,000 from his Austrian business partner, Manuel Stofleth-Mitterer. According to Manuel, however, the money has still not been repaid. Shortly after Manuel sought to enforce the securities he says were agreed under the loan, Tamba and another business partner filed a criminal complaint against him and his wife.

What began as a personal loan has therefore developed into a wider dispute over contractual rights, pledged company shares and the role of state authorities when commercial and criminal allegations overlap.

Manuel and his wife, Angelika Mitterer, together with Gambian partners and international investors, have invested several million euros in The Gambia. Through Kasumai Real Estate, they developed The Edge and Bitcoin Tower in Bijilo. The Edge has been operational since April 2025, while the structural framework of the 18-storey Bitcoin Tower, the tallest apartment tower in The Gambia, has already been completed. Manuel was also involved in MASThave Real Estate, through which a farm was established in Berending; Tamba also held shares in that company.

Since 2025, the business partners have been involved in disputes over control of the companies, shareholdings and financial matters. Two court proceedings already concern their jointly owned companies. The new lawsuit is separate from those disputes. It concerns the personal loan between Manuel and Tamba, for which the lawsuit states that Tamba pledged his shares in both companies as security.

According to the affidavit filed with the High Court, Tamba initially received €15,000 in January 2024, followed by another €150,000 in May. A written agreement, known as a Promissory Note, governed the repayment. The first half was due by 31 December 2024, and the second half by 30 April 2025.

Manuel maintains that both deadlines passed without repayment. He says Tamba requested more time, but no payment followed. In April 2026, Tamba publicly acknowledged that he had received a personal loan totalling €165,000.

After repayment failed to materialise, Manuel sought the transfer of the company shares pledged as security. His lawyer prepared a formal letter dated 24 June 2025, which, according to the available documents, Tamba received on 6 July.

On 7 July, Tamba and Dutch investor Marcel Lambertus Teunis van Andel, another Kasumai Real Estate shareholder and business partner in the Bitcoin Tower and The Edge projects, responded with a jointly signed letter, announcing that they would reply to the lawyer’s letter the following day.

On 8 July 2025, Tamba and van Andel filed a complaint with the Gambian police against Manuel and Angelika, alleging fraud and theft.

Manuel alleges that the timing of the police complaint was connected to his attempt to enforce the securities under the loan agreement. A witness statement from June 2026 examined by The Fatu Network records Tamba as saying during a later encounter: “I reported you to the police because you sold my shares.” The statement was signed by several people who were present at the encounter and is now among the material Manuel relies upon in challenging the circumstances surrounding the original police complaint.

In June 2026, Manuel and Angelika were acquitted of the charge of disobeying a lawful order. The court found that they had complied with the relevant order concerning access to electronic devices. The ruling did not determine the original allegations of fraud and theft.

Through the new personal lawsuit, Manuel is asking the High Court to declare the loan agreement legally binding, recognise his entitlement to the pledged securities and establish that Tamba breached the agreement. He is also seeking two million dalasi in damages and an additional one million dalasi for legal and administrative costs. The court has not yet decided the case.

The Fatu Network has previously reported on the wider disputes involving Kasumai Real Estate, Bitcoin Tower, The Edge, the police and the business partners. This latest case raises a more specific question: what happens when an acknowledged private loan, pledged company shares and an attempt to enforce those securities become intertwined with a criminal complaint?

For investors, both Gambian and international, the case also raises broader questions about contractual certainty and the separation between private commercial disputes and criminal investigations. Those questions are distinct from the High Court’s task of determining the legal rights and obligations arising from the €165,000 loan itself.

Can an agreed security be enforced when a borrower defaults? Was the subsequent police complaint independent of the dispute over the pledged shares? And how should state authorities handle criminal allegations that arise in the middle of an ongoing commercial dispute?

The Fatu Network previously sought Tamba’s response regarding the €165,000 loan and the wider dispute surrounding the companies. Tamba confirmed receiving the €165,000 from Manuel and said he had intended to repay it, but disputed Manuel’s account of what followed, accusing him of attempting to take control of his shares. Tamba has separately maintained that the police complaint against Manuel arose from allegations that company proceeds had been concealed or diverted into cryptocurrency. Manuel and Angelika strongly deny those allegations.