From the corner office to jail
Former National Bank of Kenya bosses may land in jail after market regulator recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions charge them in court.
Former Head of Treasury Solomon Alubala was particularly caught with his hand in the cookie jar and has been fined a whopping Sh104 million one of the highest fines on one person in recent times.
“Mr. Alubala has been fined Sh104.8 Million being 2 times the amounts so far traced into his hands from the embezzled funds. CMA has therefore sought restriction on two properties associated with him which were purchased with the embezzled funds,” CMA said in a notice yesterday.
Chris Kisire Former Chief Finance Officer up to April 2015 has been fined Sh1 Million for his role in the embezzlement scheme.
The regulator has also banned the officers from holding high offices in any listed firm.
Former Managing Director Munir Ahmed has been disqualified from holding a board position in a public issuer of securities or working for a licensed person for a period of 3 years and imposed a financial penalty of Sh5 million for cooking books.
CMA has also disqualified Mr. Alubala and Mr. Kisire for a period of 10 years and 3 years respectively in line with evidence of their active involvement in the embezzlement scheme.
Wycliffe Kivunira the former Ag. Chief financial officer and former Chief Credit Officer George Jaba were also fined Sh1 million each for misrepresentation of financial statements and failure to relay correct information on provisioning to the board respectively.
CMA was investigating cooking of books in 2015 June and September where profits were overstated and another charge where Sh1 billion which was alleged to have been siphoned out of the bank through an embezzlement scheme.
Mr. Munir and his colleagues booked Sh800 million sold assets before they were actually disposed under provisioned bad loans to boost profits.
The Bank had published unaudited financial statements reporting profits of Sh1.7 billion for the quarter ended 30 June 2015 and Sh2.2 billion for the quarter ended 30 September 2015 but subsequently reported a loss of Sh1. 2 Billion in its audited financial statements for the period ended December 31, 2015.
The managers were also accused of scheming a deposit mobilization program where commissions were paid to private agents for deposits placed by Government agencies in the normal course of business.
Investigations established that up to ninety percent of the commissions paid to the private agents may have subsequently been transferred back to persons related to NBK.
