Punishment of money laundering in plea agreement

Our company and its director are under criminal investigation for the offence of money laundering. We would like to know what the punishment will be in case the company and the director decide to enter into a plea bargaining with the prosecution. Is there any minimum penalty which the Court is bound to impose irrespective of the plea agreement? 
DM, Dar

Fine sentence for the offence of money laundering prescribed under section 12(1) of the Anti- Money Laundering Act [Cap. 423 R.E 2019] for an individual offender ranges between TZS 100 million and 500 million. In default to pay the fine, the Court can sentence the individual offender to imprisonment ranging between 5 and 10 years. The penalty for a corporate offender ranges between TZS 500 million and 1 billion or the Court may order the corporate offender to pay three times the value of the property involved. However, it should be borne in mind that money laundering is listed in the First Schedule to the Economic and Organised Crimes Control Act [Cap.200 R.E 2019] as an economic offence. Minimum sentence of all the offences prescribed under section 60(2) of the EOCCA is 20 years imprisonment irrespective of the gravity of the offence and the maximum is 30 years imprisonment if the crime is proved to have been committed in an organised manner.

Where the offender is convicted on his own plea of guilty in a plea agreement, section 194D(6) of the Criminal Procedure Act [Cap. 20 R.E 2019] as amended by Act No.1 of 2022 gives the accused and the prosecution power to agree on the sentence to be imposed and the Court is bound to impose the sentence agreed by the parties in case the plea agreement is recorded by the Court. Prior to the amendment of section 194D of the Criminal Procedure Act, the sentencing procedure following the conviction founded on a plea agreement was governed by the Criminal Procedure (Plea Bargaining Agreement) Rules, 2021. Rule 21 gave the accused and the prosecution privilege to recommend the sentence to be imposed on a conviction founded on plea agreement but the final determination of the sentence is made by the Court.

However, now that the Criminal Procedure Act gives power to the parties to bargain even the sentence, the final determination of the sentence lies with the parties and not the Court. Since rule 21(1) of the Plea Bargaining Rules and section 194D (6) Criminal Procedure Act are at a variance, the Act that vests the parties with power to determine the sentence prevails over the Rules that vests the Court with power to assess the sentence.