Lawsuits hindering reopening of Imperial Bank

Depositors of the collapsed Imperial Bank are now accusing shareholders of frustrating efforts to have the bank reopened.

Through an umbrella body calling itself IBL depositors lobby group, the depositors are faulting the shareholders for filing numerous suits against the Central Bank that have seen the regulator extend its audit period by a further three months.

Depositors have in particular lauded efforts by the regulator to reopen Chase Bank in less than three weeks, further urging CBK to also look for a speedy resolution for Imperial Bank.

Among the suits filed by shareholders include the appointment of KCB and DTB to pay off customers with under a million shillings and the apparent poaching of their staff by the two banks.

In late March CBK announced a three-month extension to enable them complete a forensic audit on the bank.

According to the regulator, the forensic audit had identified 700 accounts it considered as being of interest that required more time to be audited.

The regulator was also in the process of unravelling intricate connections between the accounts that had been used to siphon money out of the bank.

“For instance, over 700 accounts-of-interest have now been isolated for scrutiny, with some of them connected to a few dozen related accounts, while initial expectations were that there would be a few dozen accounts-of-interest; some 22,520 high-priority transactions need to be investigated,” the CBK said.

Imperial Bank was placed under receivership in October 2015 after the unearthing of a Sh38 billion fraud scheme at the bank.