Investigators want orders freezing bank accounts of NYS suspects extended

The Assets Recovery Agency has filed an application seeking to have orders freezing 11 bank accounts held at Equity Bank for the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal suspects extended.

In the application dated September 4, 2018, lawyer Gitiri Jennifer says that they were first issued with the orders in the month of May, adding that the orders were then extended.

Court documents further state that the orders have so far elapsed and there is apprehension that the money in the bank accounts may be withdrawn and spent.

Investigating officer Fredrick Musyoki claims that preliminary investigations revealed that between January 2015 and May 2018, more than a billions of shillings were laundered from NYS and channeled into several accounts.

The agency further wants a directive for the court orders to be served to the bank manager Equity Bank Limited Head Office, Nairobi, compelling said manager to avail the applicants certified copies of account opening documents, cheques and RTGS statements of account for the period between January 1, 2015, to date.

“That the preliminary investigations have established that the account under investigation has multiple transactions involving millions of shillings in various banks and entities requiring further investigations to establish the money trail and trace proceeds of crime,” reads court papers.

Musyoki further said that the NYS case is one of immense public interest involving complex schemes of money laundering and proceeds of crime that has taken the investigators a lot of time to unravel them.