Ex-Imperial Bank boss’ family accused of stripping his estate

The family of former Imperial Bank managing director Abdulmalek Janmohammed has been reluctant to take control of his estate as part of a calculated plan to shield the assets from being attached to recover the Sh28.8 billion he is accused of stealing from the collapsed lender, the bank’s receiver managers say.

The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) says Mr Janmohammed’s mother and two brothers have started transferring assets from the deceased banker’s estate to frustrate any efforts to recover the depositor funds.

“This (transfer of estate assets) is being done with a view to defeating the enforcement of any judgment entered against them (Mr Janmohammed’s family) in these or any other proceedings. It is unlikely that any of the deceased’s family members will take out letters of
administration in respect of Mr Janmohammed’s estate,” the KDIC says court documents.

The High Court’s family division has temporarily appointed Mr Janmohammed’s mother, Gulshan, and his brothers, Mehdi and Salim, as the legal representatives of the vast estate for purposes of giving the receiver managers a chance to pursue the assets he acquired before his death in September last year.

The family’s control over Mr Janmohammed’s estate is expected to last until a suit the KDIC has filed against them is heard and determined.

Imperial Bank’s receivers say in the application before the High Court that Gulshan, Mehdi and Salim have moved some assets out of Mr Janmohammed’s estate.

The former Imperial Bank managing director’s estate is yet to be divided among his successors.

But Mr Janmohammed’s family has in response to the receiver manager’s allegations insisted that he had a good eye for business and wisely invested Sh1 billion he received from Imperial Bank in salaries and allowances to acquire the vast wealth he had at the time of his death.

READ: How Imperial Bank boss stole Sh34bn from savers

KDIC says in court documents that while it has managed to freeze Mr Janmohammed and his family’s assets in Kenya, their offshore possessions remain out of reach.

The court documents indicate that Mr Janmohammed had shares in Mauritian energy firms Titan Investments, Astonfield Solar and Asachi Solar Power Limited.

He also had shares in Parvel International, and a bank account with an undisclosed amount of money in the British Virgin Islands.

The banker also owned two beach plots in Zanzibar, a number of real estate projects in Mozambique, a studio apartment in Dubai and a share portfolio in South Africa managed by financial services firm MMI Holdings.

Locally, the deceased banker’s portfolio included an assortment of shares held by Old Mutual and Apex Securities, a stake in Butali Sugar, Sandview Properties, Allgate Limited, Serenity Limited, Plymouth Holdings, Upperview Properties, Downtown Holdings and Nature Stone Queries.

KDIC is, however, attempting to have the London Companies House delay dissolution of Mr Janmohammed’s main investment vehicle — Janco Investments until the Kenyan case is heard and determined.

Hours after Mr Janmohammed’s death, his family applied to have the company’s London arm dissolved after transferring its known assets to a Mauritian firm that has not been identified in court filings, according to the KDIC.

Janco’s Kenyan arm says in response to the KDIC’s suit that it has been in operation since 1991, more than a decade before the alleged embezzlement scheme begun at Imperial Bank.

READ: Mystery of Sh3bn stolen by Imperial boss after his death

The firm has also denied transferring any of its assets as claimed by the receiver managers. Janco held a 13.5 per cent shareholding in Imperial Bank and had received Sh34 million in dividends as at October last year when the lender was placed under statutory management.

Anne Muoki, an assistant receiver manager at Imperial Bank, however says Washington DC-based audit firm FTI Consulting has found evidence that Mr Janmohammed’s mother and brothers withdrew Sh297 million from a fictitious bank account (Barkhatkhan), and invested most of it in Janco.

“Copies of statements of accounts retrieved from the bank’s system by FTI Consulting show that an amount in excess of Sh150 million was transferred to Janco by Mr Janmohammed, his mother and brothers have already been produced as exhibits,” Ms Muoki says.

Mr Janmohammed’s family has faulted the KDIC for relying on excerpts of the FTI Consulting probe without filing the full audit report in court.

The Central Bank of Kenya had initially announced that the audit report would be completed by June 30, but the regulator has kept mum on whether FTI Consulting has published the document.

The KDIC has, however, in its suit quoted bits and pieces from the much anticipated audit.