A forged court order was used to lock out businessman Paul Ndung’u from participating in a dispute over the fight of betting firm SportPesa, placing a top lawyer under criminal investigations for forgery.
The details emerged in a judgment where the Court of Appeal reversed its earlier ruling that had blocked the businessman from participating in pending cases over control of SportPesa’s assets and shares.
The court order was drafted to make it appear that Mr Ndung’u had been blocked from filing or participating in cases on behalf of the betting firm. This includes a case where he sought to contest the use of the SportPesa trademark by Milestone Games.
The High Court order restrained the businessman from dealing in Pevans East Africa, which owned the SportPesa brand, for two weeks ending January 24, 2023.
However, the fictitious order had different wordings, indicating an injunction had been granted, blocking Mr Ndung’u or his agents from dealing in Pevans East Africa in perpetuity.
This court order was filed in the Court of Appeal, and judges relied on it to block Mr Ndung’u from participating in a suit where a consent allowing Milestone Games to use the SportPesa trademark had been challenged.
The disputed consent was said to have been inked by Milestone Games and Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB), whose five of seven directors disowned the agreement and rejected claims that they had approved the use of the SportPesa trademark.
Mr Ndung’u had appealed to join the case challenging the consent, but his application was dismissed by a bench of three judges of the Court of Appeal on February 11, 2023.
The businessman argued that Milestone Games filed “a fraudulent manufactured court order” that misled the court into dismissing his application to join the case.
The fake order in part led Justices Daniel Musinga, Mumbi Ngugi and George Odunga to reverse the 2023 decision of the Court of Appeal and reckoned that Mr Ndung’u had a right to participate in the suit.
“The issue of his alleged expulsion as a shareholder of Pevans is one that requires proper interrogation, and that would be impossible unless Paul is joined as a party to the appeal and other proceedings that are pending in court,” said the three judges.
“Turning to the orders of injunction issued by the High Court on 12th January 2023, Paul (Ndung’u) stated, and rightly so, in our view, that the said orders were interim in nature and lapsed by operation of the law as they had not been extended. That averment was not challenged by Milestone,” added the judges.
The judgment has triggered investigations of the top lawyer by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) for forgery in a case listed under OB 23/08/09/2025.
The battle for the SportPesa brand and Pevans pits former partners, who have since fallen out. Mr Ndung’u and Asenath Wachera, with a combined ownership of 38 percent, are battling other shareholders, including the chief executive of the firm, Ronald Karauri, and foreigners controlling nearly half of the company.
Pevans East Africa's licence was cancelled in July 2019 for alleged non-payment of taxes.
A new company called Milestone Games, which was created by some of the shareholders of Pevans but excluded Mr Ndung’u and Mrs Maina, entered the betting business in October 2020 with the SportPesa brand.
Mr Karauri and Robert Macharia, who had a three percent stake in Pevans, were the beneficial owners of Milestone Games with 71 percent and 14 percent shareholding respectively.
This sparked a vicious legal battle for the gaming firm, including the trademark and web domains, triggering multiple suits in Kenyan courts and London.
Mr Ndung’u and Mrs Maina had stakes of 17 percent and 21 percent, respectively, in Pevans, but now face the prospect of being forced out without any compensation. The two have gone to court to protest their expulsion from the firm and the transfer of the SportPesa brand to Milestone Games.
Mr Ndung’u says he held 17 percent shareholding in the betting firm but that his shares have since been diluted to 0.8 percent, through what he termed an irregular dilution scheme.
Trouble at the betting firm started in October 2022, when a general meeting was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which was summoned under a special resolution to expel Mr Ndung’u and Mrs Maina.
The directors of the betting firm, including Mr Karauri and Mr Macharia, then sought court orders stopping Mr Ndung’u and Ms Maina from filing any case on behalf of the company, saying they had no authority because they had been expelled.
Mr Ndung’u says the High Court had threatened to close a case pending before the Judicial Review division of the High Court, which was filed in 2022, arguing that it is now bound by the Court of Appeal’s decisions.
He added that Pevans’ operations remain dormant to date, a move that had occasioned him loss as a shareholder as its assets continue to be used by Milestone Games.
The businessman says he learnt on November 5, 2024 that the appeal challenging the transfer of the SportPesa brand to Milestone Games had been settled through consent.
Under the consent, BCLB and Milestone Games said they had agreed to settle a dispute over operational permits and the use of the SportPesa brand out of court.
The High Court had dismissed the consent, arguing that the dispute over the use of the SportPesa brand by Milestone Games should go to a full trial. This prompted Milestone Games to file an appeal challenging the High Court decision and it later sought to terminate the suits via consent and block Mr Ndung’u from the cases.
SportPesa was launched in Kenya in 2014 by Pevans. The investors also held nearly similar stakes in UK-based SportPesa Global Holdings Limited, which owns gaming subsidiaries in other markets including Tanzania, before the dilution of others.
American Gene Grand had a 21 percent stake in Pevans and Bulgarians-- Guerassim Nikolov, Nikolae Mineva and Ivan Kalpakchiev—had a combined ownership of 26 percent.
They earned dividends totalling Sh7.6 billion in the four and half years to June 2019, underlining its cash-rich status.
