Imperial Bank senior Officials Zulfikar Haiderali Jessa,Nashir Haiderali Jessa, James Jamlick Kaburu and Naeem Ahmed Shah at a milimani law courst where they have been charged with conspiring to defraud the bank of Sh29 billion through an illegal overdraft disbursement scheme on Wednesday March 23, 2016.
BY Sam Alfan
Five senior Imperial Bank officials have been charged with conspiring to defraud the bank of Sh29 billion through an illegal overdraft disbursement scheme.
They are Naeem Shah, Nashir Jessa, Nargis Jessa, James Kaburu and Zulfikar Jessa.
The five who appeared at Milimani law courts on Wednesday 23 were also charged with engaging in organised crimes.
Shah, Nashir and Nargis were accused of colluding with others not before the court to steal Sh34 million for purposes of obtaining financial benefits.
They allegedly committed the offense between August 30, 2010 and September 15, 2015.
Shah who was head of credit and Kaburu, a Chief Finance Officer, faced another charge of making false entries in bank books under their maintenance.
The bank was placed under receivership last year after CBK became aware of unsafe bank practices.
CBK’s move came a few weeks after Imperial Bank appointed Mr Naeem Shah as interim managing director following the death of its former MD Mr Abdulmalek Janmohamed.
The five officials allegedly did this between January 1, 2006 and September 15, 2015, with the intention of committing fraud.
The accused denied the charges before senior principal magistrate Joyce Gandani.
They were granted a Sh500, 000 cash bail each pending a bond determination hearing set for Thursday.
The prosecutor had asked the court to grant the accused a “harsh cash bail”, noting that the money stolen was in billions.
He also asked the court to confiscate their passports saying they were a flight risk.
Receiver manager Peter Gatere accused former group MD Abdulmalek Janmohamed and other senior officials of embezzling the funds. The MD died from cardiac arrest on September 15.
The funds were transferred to 20 companies and individuals named as respondents in the case, Gatere said in documents filed in court.
