By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
PARROTS UG | BUSINESS REPORTS:
The criminal court in Uganda has issed summons to Prince Shah Karim Al-Husayn alias Agha Khan IV, the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, owning Diamond Trust Bank Group, to answer criminal charges against him.
According to a criminal summons document issued by the court which Parrots UG has seen, the one time darling tp president Museveni, Prince Shah Karim Hussain – the Agha Khan IV and three others are accused of doing criminal acts of theft, electronic fraud, making false entries in financial ledgers, computer misuse, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit felony.
Other accused staff are; Nassim Mohamed Devji, The Group C.E.O & M.D DTB Africa, Varghese Thambi, the C.E.O DTB Uganda and John Sitakange, the Head Of Credit DTB Uganda.
This is the second time Diamond Trust Bank Top Management is being Summoned, in May 2021, the M.D was summoned by the Financial Intelligence for Money Laundering Related investigations.
This arises from the illegal and dubious debit transactions from Tycoon Hamis Kiggundu and Ham Enterprises U Ltd.’s bank accounts over a spread period of 10 years.
The prosecution (Government of Uganda) allege that the four committed crimes of; theft contrary to section 254 of the Penal Code Act Cap 120, making false entries in financial ledgers contrary to section 47 (1) and (3) of the financial Institutions Act of 2004.
They are also accused of electronic fraud contrary to section 19 of the computer misuse Act, uttering false documents contrary to section 351 of the Penal Code Act 120 and conspiracy to commit a felony contrary to section 360 of Penal Code Act 120.
Court has since summoned the four to appear before Buganda Road Magistrate’s court on 28 September,2021, to take plea on charges against them.
Background of rows at DTB.
In March last year, Ham dragged both banks to court for dubiously debiting over Shs 120 billion from his accounts without his consent. The Bank acknowledged not having an operational license permitting to operate in Uganda as required by law on Court records and in a landmark Judgement of 7th October 2021 The High Court convicted Diamond Trust Bank Uganda and Kenya for Violating the Financial Institutions Acts of Both Uganda and Kenya and also Violating the Banking regulations among other illegalities committed.
In an affidavit swore by Hamis to Kiggundu, the proprietor of Ham Enterprises, top bank managers superintendent illegally and unlawfully transacted Shs 34,295,951,553 and $23,467,670 from his bank accounts.
“The above persons who are the directing mind of the bank had knowledge of illegal transactions and they bear criminal liability for the approval and concurrence in committing the deception and fraud on the complainant’s accounts,” reads in part of the affidavit.
Kiggundu in his affidavit swore that the four do not meet the criteria and they are not fit and proper persons to own, control and manage a bank or any other financial institutions in accordance with the 3rd schedule of the Financial Institutions Act, 2004.
The High Court ordered DTB to immediately pay the bank the over Ugx. 120 billion that it had illegally debited with an annual interest rate of 8%. which is the implementing authority under the Financial Authorities Act 2 of 2004 as amended to take such necessary actions and measures to ensure that the provisions of the law is implemented in accordance with the intention of the law such as to protect the Ugandan economy from illegal hemorrhages and uncontrolled flows of financial resources and to ensure that financial institutional business in Uganda is operated within the letter of the law to protect the nascent banking business industry in Uganda.
Diamond Trust Bank appealed and on 5th May 2021, the appellant judges left the bank with an illegality burden which has since escalated into theft and fraud charges.
By the time of compiling this report, neither DTB management nor their lawyers had issued official communication responding to the summons.
