The shareholders are Abdulmal Investments, Imaran Limited, Reynolds & Company Limited, East African Motors Industries Limited, Momentum Holdings Limited, Rex Motors Limited and Kenblest Limited.
They said that Imperial Bank had floated a corporate bond of Sh2 billion, and that bondholders can claim a refund from them as individuals under rules of the Capital Markets Authority, hence their need to be in the recovery suit.
The High Court has declined to enjoin Imperial Bank shareholders in a case that the lender filed against 20 companies and individuals in a bid to recover over Sh34 billion they allegedly stole from depositors alongside the late founder Abdulmalek Janmohammed.
Justice Fred Ochieng yesterday ruled that allowing the shareholders to join the suit as co-complainants may drag the case, as they intend to pursue conflicting interests from those of the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation—Imperial Bank’s receiver manager.
The shareholders, in their application to join the case, claimed that the KDIC has failed to pursue two companies that were tagged in an audit report as possible suspects in the Sh34 billion fraud scheme.
They also accused the KDIC of being compromised as it was reluctant to pursue Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) staff believed to be part of the mega scam.
FTI Consulting in its report on the Imperial Bank scam recommended the pursuit of Adra International and Jade Petroleum—a company associated with the families of billionaire fugitives Pankaj Somaia and Yagnesh Devani.
Unlikely to work in tandem
“In my considered view, they see the receiver as compromised by virtue of the fact that it was appointed by a party who was complicit in the irregular dealings at the bank. Those are not the views of a party that is keen on working with the receiver. If the parties who were on one side of a case had competing interests, they were unlikely to work in tandem,” Justice Ochieng held.
The shareholders are Abdulmal Investments, Imaran Limited, Reynolds & Company Limited, East African Motors Industries Limited, Momentum Holdings Limited, Rex Motors Limited and Kenblest Limited.
They said that Imperial Bank had floated a corporate bond of Sh2 billion, and that bondholders can claim a refund from them as individuals under rules of the Capital Markets Authority, hence their need to be in the recovery suit.
The KDIC has meanwhile said that it has discovered more fictitious bank accounts that were used to siphon money deposited by customers before 2006.
“Ongoing forensic investigations have discovered what appear to be other fictitious accounts that were controlled and operated by Mr Janmohammed and Naeem Shah therefore suggesting that the fraud begun well before 2006,” KDIC says.
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