Ex-Britam executives to face fraud charges in Sh1billion case
Four former senior employees of the British-American Assets Managers Limited financial firm (Britam) now face a Sh1.1 billion fraud charges for the transaction they made seven years ago.
The four ex-executives are; former managing director Harold Dande, Elizabeth Nkukuu (senior portfolio manager), Shiv Arora (assistant company secretary) and Patricia Njeri (head of legal services).
The four will now face charges after the Court of Appeal dismissed their plea to stop the trial, saying the money was refunded.
“Prima facie therefore, there was evidence of the commission of the offence. As to whether the evidence was sufficient to find a conviction is for the trial court,” Justices Asike Makhandia, Mumbi Ngugi and Pauline Nyamweya said.
According to the bench of three judges of the Court of Appeal, the former senior employees admitted that they authorised the remittances and had subsequently agreed to reimburse the money in a bid to settle the dispute.
Additionally, the judges dismissed claims that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji bowed to pressure from Britam to prosecute them, saying there was no evidence to support the claims.
In a report, Haji said that after investigations, it was discovered that the four, who later founded investment firm Cytonn, engaged in fraudulent, irregular, and unauthorised withdrawals or managed funds fraudulently.
Jude Anyiko Oluoch, Britam’s acting Chief Executive Officer said that the four officers misused their positions to make unauthorized transfers.
“Dande and Wanjama exchanged e-mail correspondence embodying a conspiracy to do things that had not been approved by Britam Board of Directors, the conspiracy entailed fraudulent, irregular and unauthorised withdrawals of funds from our accounts,” said the CEO.
The four were to be charged with two counts of theft by servant after allegedly authorising payments of more than Sh1.1 billion from Britam, an offence they allegedly committed between July and September 2014 from the firm’s real estate fund.
In 2017, the High Court judge John Mativo had dismissed the case prompting them to move to the Court of Appeal.
