BY SAM ALFAN.
Minority owner of Bluebird Aviation has lost bid to wrestle majority partners.
Adan abdi had claimed that the majority shareholders had siphoning more than $1 billion (Sh103 billion) from the airline through tax evasion, fraud and money laundering.
“In view of the foregoing, I find no merit in the application and decline to grant the permission sought. Being of that view, it is not necessary to delve into the second issue regarding the grant of the other interim orders sought in the application. Accordingly, the application dated March 30, 2016 is without merit and is hereby dismissed in its entirety with costs to the defendants, ” ruled Mabeya
However, Justice Alfred Mabeya established that there was no fault by the majority shareholders, thus ending the five year old case pitting Adan Abdi Yussuf against three other directors of the 29-year-old airline.
Yussuf had accused the directors including Hussein Ahmed Farah, Hussein Unshur and Mohamed Abdikadir of fraud, conversion, money laundering, and theft of company property.
Judge further noted that it was the contention of the defendants, which was not denied or challenged, that they grew the Company by jointly purchasing one aircraft on credit, flew it until the debt was paid off.
He aalso said that they purchased aircraft on credit and flew them until the Company was financially stable. That it was their combined skill, effort, time and capital that led to the growth and success of the Company. That from the very beginning, the plaintiff was never involved in the management of the Company as he was only approached to buy a share as a potential permanent customer, as he was in the business of miraa exportation.
“If the defendant’s contention is anything to go by, it would shed light on why the plaintiff is eager to either have the Company wound up, or leave it through a buy out of his shares”, Judge noted.
He alleged that he was an integral part of the company in its formative years but had been locked out of its operations for the last 23 years, and thus unable to access the company’s information or assets.
But Justice Mabeya dismissed all the allegations brought against the other directors saying Yussuf failed to prove the allegations of fraud, theft, misappropriation, conversion and money laundering.
The judge noted that in the present case, all that the plaintiff did was to make sweeping allegations without any backing by way of evidence. He only stated that he had carried out investigations and made discovery of the allegations he made.
“The documents that were produced were not authenticated to prove any of the allegations made against the defendants. There was no evidence to show that the defendants were shareholders of Amazon or were in any way connected with that company,” the Judge said.
Yussuf had claimed that his partners had been stashing proceeds from the airline in international banks they operated in the name of Amazon International FZE.
He also called for an audit of the company’s financial status from 1992 to 2016. He accused other directors of failing to hold annual general meetings and failing to account for insurance compensation belonging to Blue Bird company.
But Justice Mabeya said his partners had sufficiently showed that their relationship with Amazon was purely commercial and not otherwise.
“That the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate the directorship or shareholding of the defendants at Amazon or that they had stolen money from the Company and deposited the same at Amazon’s accounts,” he said.
The said Company was buying aircraft from manufacturers on cash basis and sell the same at a profit to the Company. The profit therefrom was being shared by the defendants.
The defendants had exchanged or battered aircraft belonging to the Company in consideration for shares in other aviation companies at Wilson Airport without the authority of the plaintiff or the Company.
He denied the plaintiff’s allegations in their entirety.
He explained that aircraft 5Y-SLD Dash-106 was purchased by the Company for US$ 900,000.00 on July 13, 2006, and later on sold to Safarilink Aviation Ltd at a profit for US$ 2,400,000.00 in December 2006.
The suit together with six others filed by the director in various courts since 2016, have the potential to cut down the carriers creditworthiness, its goodwill among members of the public, demotivate its employees as well damage its reputation and success.
The three Directors said they started the airline with one aircraft on credit to a fleet of 20 planes.
They said Yussuf was never involved in the management of the company as he was only approached to buy a share and only pumped Sh150,000 to the business.
