Court warns IBL shareholders against selling assets

Former directors and shareholders of collapsed Imperial Bank have been barred from disposing of their assets.

This comes in the wake of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) quest to recover Sh45 billion shillings from them in connection to the massive fraud that led to the closure of the bank.

The directive by the High Court Judge Francis Tuiyot comes at a time both the CBK and KDIC have expressed difficulty in recovering any of the Sh38 billion siphoned out of the bank.

Among those named as defendants in the joint CBK and KDIC suit are Alanashir Popat , Anwar Hajee, Jinit Shah, Hanif Mohammed Amiralisomji, Mkeshi Kumar Patel , Vishnu Dhutia , Estate of Abdulmalek JanMohamed, Erick Bengi Gitonga, Omurembe Iyadi  and Christopher Angelo Diaz.

Assets listed in the recovery suit include Imaran Real Estate Limited, Janco Investment Limited, Reynolds and Company Limited, East African Motor Industries, Momentum Holdings Limited, AbdulMal Investment Limited, Kenblest Limited and Rex Motors Limited.

In total the banking regulator is said to be interested in 44 properties in Kenya linked to the directors and shareholders.

According to the CBK, the respondents hold great accountability in the financial mismanagement of the bank, overseeing the decade long fraud.

“The defendants are liable for all loss and damage caused by their negligence, gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duty,” CBK said in a petition filed on Friday.

According to KDIC, relatives of the late Abdulamek Janmohammed (former Imperial Bank Managing Director) had started transferring assets from his estate in an effort of frustrating recovery efforts.

Mr Janmohammed is seen as the lead architect of the grand fraud in which an estimated Sh38 billion was lost from the bank.

KDIC is relying on a forensic audit conducted by FTI Consulting to link the massive fraud to directors and shareholders.

Shareholders however read malice in the move given the fact they are the ones who raised the red flag with the CBK on October 12 only for the bank to be placed under receivership the next day.