Chinese tycoons wage legal battle over Sh300m prime city land

Mr Guo reckons that his business partner colluded with two law firms - Ongweny & Moibi Advocates and Ongalo & Company Advocates - to ensure his presence does not interfere with the completion of the fraudulent scheme. Neither Mr Li nor the two law firms have responded to the suit.

The Chinese tycoon says Mr Li tried to kick him out of a company they formed to buy the Kilimani land and bribed the police to deport him after learning that he had reported the scam to the police.

“Mr Guo subsequently reported the foregoing allegations of obtaining by false pretence but Mr Li got wind of it and started the process of ousting me from Catham Properties with the assistance of Ongalo & Company.

Advocates, which prepared share transfer forms, letter of resignation and an affidavit in the name of the petitioner,” Mr Dong says in court papers.

Mr Guo insists that the affidavit detailing his resignation as a director of Catham was signed while he had travelled outside the country.

The Chinese businessman says his planned deportation is intended to frustrate the two cases he has filed in the Commercial Division of the High Court against Mr Li. He adds that the police are at an advanced stage of issuing a warrant for his arrest.

Mr Guo has sued the Ministry of Interior and Co-ordination and the Director of Public Prosecutions in the petition seeking to block his deportation. Mr Li, Ongweny & Moibi Advocates and Ongalo & Company Advocates are enjoined in the suit as interested parties.

Justice Weldon Korir issued a temporary order barring Mr Guo’s arrest or deportation, and has ordered the Ministry of Interior and Co-ordination not to interfere with his residence in Kenya until the case is heard.

Mr Guo is also a director of Multi-Win Trading East Africa, which is among the key investors in a satellite city to be built in Athi River in Machakos County, about 30 kilometres South of Nairobi.

The project includes the construction of more than 20 skyscrapers, and has been touted as a “mini Dubai” that will make Nairobi a glamorous shopping destination. Mr Guo reckons that he and Mr Li formed Catham Properties in 2013, and that his business partner told him the Kilimani land was worth Sh600 million.

He then paid Sh240 million to the client account of Ongweny & Omoibi Advocates and Sh60 million to an account run by Mr Li in China and a further Sh26 million in stamp duty and legal fees.

Mr Guo says he later discovered last year that Mr Wenjie had bought the land for Sh100 million through Ongweny & Moibi advocates, prompting him to report the matter to the police.

Further background checks on his business partner revealed that Mr Li had been charged in the Kibera Chief Magistrate’s Court in 2014 for orchestrating a similar scheme on another firm-Homelands Development Investors.

“Again (in the alleged Homelands scam), Ongweny & Moibi Advocates was involved. Mr Li is out on bond after being bailed out by Tobias Ongalo of Ongalo & Company Advocates having submitted to court a title deed for his house in Lavington,” Mr Guo adds.

Mr Ongalo’s daughter Christine Anyango has been entangled in the dispute as Mr Guo argues that she prepared the documents intended to oust him from directorship of Catham Properties. She is an associate at her father’s law firm and was the company secretary of Catham Properties.

Mr Dong says he has twice reported the attempt to oust him from Catham and to defraud him of Sh300 million to the Kilimani and Upper Hill police stations but no action has been taken. The CID dropped its plans to charge Mr Li and Ms Ongalo with the offence.

“Thereafter, Mr Guo lodged a complaint with the CID leading to the preparation of charge sheets for Christine Anyango Muga and Mr Li but the suspects were not charged forcing the petitioner complain to the office of the DPP but the same elicited no reaction,” Mr Guo adds. The Chinese national says intervention of the court is necessary as his appeals to various authorities have yielded no fruits.