Companies

Ex-NBK executive hits back at CMA over employment ban

muthaura

Capital Markets Authority CEO Paul Muthaura. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Former National Bank of Kenya (NBK) #ticker:NBK head of Treasury Solomon Alubala has moved to the High Court contesting penalties by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) banning him from holding office and requiring him to pay a fine of Sh104.8 million.

Mr Alubala argues that the decision banning from holding office in listed companies for up to 10 years over a multi-million-shilling scandal at the lender has put in jeopardy his future employment prospects.

Mr Alubala was fined in April alongside seven other former senior executives of NBK over cooking of books and theft of more than Sh1 billion from the lender.

“An order of certiorari to remove to this court to be quashed the purported decision of the respondent…purporting to disqualify the applicant from holding office as a key officer of the listed company…for a period of 10 years; and purporting to impose a financial penalty amounting to Sh104, 800,000 being twice the amount of benefit that, allegedly, directly accrued to the applicant,” reads the order sought by Mr Alubala.

He says the case was investigated, heard, prosecuted and judged by the board of CMA, the regulator’s head of investigations and its CEO.

READ: Ex-NBK executives banned and fined for theft of funds

The role of investigations, prosecution and jury was performed by same individuals’ thus high likelihood of bias and improper influence, he argued and further claimed that having left the company long before the time the hearing and charges were preferred against him, the CMA has no jurisdiction to charge since the Act limits its power to employees of listed companies.

He claims that the actions against him are, therefore, abuse of powers by CMA. Mr Alubala claims he learnt of the decision against him through the Press, and that upon receiving copies of the decision he alleges that he realised it was partly based on information that was not brought to his attention during and after the hearing.

The CMA which is listed as respondent is yet to respond. The regulator had earlier said it had found that the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE)-listed bank’s profits were grossly overstated and Sh1 billion lost through an embezzlement scheme.

Other officials charged alongside him were NBK’s former managing director Munir Sheikh, who was banned from holding any position in a public listed company and hit with a Sh5 million fine.