NAKUMATT SCANDAL - FULL REPORT (By Sang)

[politicalmaniac]

Brother Sang as to circulate this

Wananchi,

As the details relating to the massive billion-dollar scam perpetrated by Nakumatt/Charterhouse Bank, begin to emerge, several questions have been raised as to why the Finance Minister, Amos Kimunya has failed to act when asked to do so by the Central Bank Governor Dr. Mullei.

Now, the truth is coming out slowly. Herein, is the full report from the Kenya Anti-Corruption agency, as well as the letter from Dr Mullei himself, warning the finance minister of the massive scam by the Charterhouse bank:
home.comcast.net/~marauder00/report1.pdf

and
home.comcast.net/~marauder00/report2.pdf

Please read and circulate to your fellow Kenyans.

[adongo12345]

Very Good stuff:


Issues to address:

1. Letter to Kimunya is dated March 20, 2006. What did he do? Nothing. Bill Kerrow exposes the scandal in June and now Kimunya closes "CheaterBank" and is livid that Hon. Kerrow got his hands on official government documents. Is Kimunya acting because he is concerned with the theft or because they have been bursted once again? The answer is obvious. This is where the MP's should put pressure. What was Kimunya waiting for? Of course the whole governemnt knew about the matter years ago.

2. Mullei's firing and consequent charges on corruption. Is Mullei in court because he actually messed upo things (Allegedly hiring his son to do some consultancy work) or could it be that someone figured he was stopping the flow of much needed cash to the Narc thieves?

3. Muhoho and the KRA. How much more thieving is muhoho and crew involved in. This dossier must have been passed on to Muhoho particularly the Value Avoided Tax piece. What if anything did he do about it.

4. How many more Nakumatt's are out there. If they can continue robbing the nation even after and invesigation has been launched, what else are they doing out there.

Kudos to Bill Kerrow, a very smart MP by the way and possibly Kenya's future minister of finance.

[politicalmaniac]

A.O,

I agree
My only worry is the afliction of amnesia we as a nation tend to have.
Right now AF scandal is in the back burner still unresolved.
Ditto GB scandal
And now this.

Do the non NARC-K adherents see where we are headed? or are the cliudy blinkers provided for by their leaders too foggy to prevent them from seeing the abyss into which we are falling?

It is deeply distressing that when I walk around in NBI and Mombasa and my ex town of NKU i still find large pockets of support for this GOVT. These folks are still fixated on side shows such as the Raila - Kibaki fallout and not on issues of governance.

Kickack1 defenders are finding it hard to dispute this post though!

[job]

Adongo & Politicalmaniac,

Thanks for both contributions.

This case of money laundering and tax-evasion by Nakumatt, Tusker Mattresses, WE Tiley (Muthaiga), Paolo Sattanino, D. Shah, Kariuki Maigua & Co, John Harun group, Sailesh Prajpati et al, propelled by Chartehouse Bank's criminal activities must be given full attention. It deserves 18 Billion shillings worth of attention from Kenyans who've just been notified of yet another case of grand fleecing....... Thanks to Billow Kerrow & others for the courage and patriotism, following the path of integrity shown by John Githongo.

I opted to list most of the said criminals lest we forget that Nakumatt may not be the sole perpetrator of such economic crimes of magnanimous proportions. There are many others, of course some are acting on multiple identities in this thieving.

I should add that this notorious Indian-Kenyan, who gravitates perennially around State House, starting from the Kenyatta era, Mr. Naushad Merali should be charged under "Enron-like" citations like insider-trading activities ,corporate fraud and embezzlement of public funds following the Uchumi fiasco. These two scams are related by the way. The man is also at the heart of every sale of Kenyan-public assets under very dubious circumstances.

Kibaki's government has yet again proved to the whole world that it's greed for money and penchant for economic crimes (looting, grand corruption, stealing of public funds, money laundering & racketeering , tax evasion) will forever remain unmatched globally.

Four significant things come to mind here. (a) Former Central Bank governor, Andew Mullei's hounding out of office had everything to do with this Nakumatt scam. (b) The Finance Ministry headed by Amos Kimunya is just but a stumbling block and impediment against recovery of the lost 18 Billion plus shillings. (c) There's also a clear case of political back-stabbing of Kibaki's current kitchen cabinet by former proteges now disgraced and consigned to the periphery. Thanks to the intra-cabal fall-out, the public gets to realize just how much they're being fleeced and taken for a ride. (d) The reinforcement of the fact that Kibaki's government actually works for the special interests of a small constituency of businessmen whose interests come first, even if they destroy broad public interests including Uchumi supermarkets.

Money laundering as we all know, is a major fuel for corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking, and most organized crime. It's medium of conduit is usually in the form of gemstones, jewellery, arms, illegal drugs and as we now see from this case- supermarket merchandise.

Kibaki's greed-driven and shameless government has shown that it will not hesitate to recruit, wine and dine with foreign Mafia-like criminals (mercenaries & hitmen) like Artur Margaryan and Artur Sargasyan at State House or engage in money laundering activities in an attempt to raise electoral campaign funds and illegally acquire assets that may later appear to have legitimate origin.

Which Kenyan today can fail to see that it's own President, Mwai Kibaki, is abetting corruption , terrorism, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering through the direct acts of Anglo-Leasing, Mafia-like media raids, Armenian imports of questionable cargo, and the Nakumatt scams respectively? The President does not bat an eye-lid as he occasionally associates with dangerous individals of questionable characters and associations, right within State House.

Kibaki's men, with his apparent approval, appear to be fiercely competing to out-do the Goldenberg looters under Moi's former regime. They seem determined to surpass the Goldenberg loot within a much shorter period of time not caring about the broader resultant consequences upon the nation of Kenya. To them, any of their critics is a mere noise-maker who must be ignored lest their looting party is derailed. Incidentally they don't fall short of supporters who actually cheer at their dubious acts and exploits of wanton ravage.

The two major loopholes for corruption being exploited to the maximum by these greedy DP fellas are public procurement (Anglo-Fleecing activities) and now money laundering.

Back in 2003, when Andrew Mullei pressed the AG, Amos Wako & former Ministers Kiraitu Murungi (Justice) & David Mwiraria (Finance) to speed up the enactment of the Money Laundering Bill, (which had been crafted with CBK's input) to seal off loopholes that led to the pilferage of more than a hundred billion shillings through Goldenberg, there was an initial reluctance and foot-dragging by the trio (Wako, Kiraitu & Mwiraria)

They needed to maintain the status quo and "conserve" those very loopholes to allow them loot a stash of cash for themselves, their cronies and their political/business interests. This time though, with stricter racketeering regulations in most Western countries following a crackdown on terrorist organizations, they intended to shift their capital flight destinations to banks in South-East Asia (in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan & even China).

There was a simultaneous pitch for a change from West-to-East with regard to security procurement deals by former Interior minister Chris Murungaru in preference of the same South-East Asian destinations. Wow! the looting party seemed destined for heavens. That's until there was a political ooops! by akina Kiraitu, Mwiraria and Murungaru who fell by the way. Their jealous back stabbing of the new kitchen cabinet at least helps the public know much about Kibaki's looting & other fraudulent activities.

I'll begin with Andrew Mullei. I have a feeling this gentleman soon realized big flaws in the financial sector as soon as he took over the governorship of CBK. He quickly realized that several
"Goldenbergs" would re-emerge under Kibaki unless fundamental economic/financial/banking reforms grounded in law, were put in place. One of his greatest concerns was to lobby for the outlawing of money laundering.

Curently in Kenya, there are no serious legal provisions outlawing money-laundering so I'm told. The only charges one may get are, tax evasion charges,.....no serious criminal charges! Unlike other countries where criminal charges could be levelled for the same offenses resulting in jail time, restitution, seizure of assets, freezing of the perpetrators accounts including those of third parties holding property on behalf of racketeers,...that's not the case with Kenya hii yetu.

As it turned out, through Mullei's efforts to correct this anomaly by closing this loophole, he was actually stepping on some peoples feet albeit without realizing. The problem may have been that Mullei didn't realize his anti-racketeering efforts were in vain since these cunning looters in Kibaki's government, kept proclaiming their "zero-tolerance" towards corruption.

Well, Mullei seems to have immediately detected ACTUAL money-laundering deals at Charterhouse Bank where business entities held multiple accounts of questionable transactions. He instituted investigations which quickly ran into trouble. Charterhouse Bank investigations by CBK must have been a frustrating sojourn. The former's Managers became "unavailable", records went missing, and shortly after, CCTV cameras and miniature microphones were mounted in the investigators' conference room. The CBK Investigators were now the ones actually being surveilled & wire-tapped. The hunter was now being hunted. The story gets even more interesting.

When the investigators got a court order forcing Charterhouse Bank to release certain financial records,... the Investigators were calmly taken to a damn godown in Industrial Area supposedly where records were stored. At the site, they found the storage warehouse coincidentally burning in smouldering fire, with some unperturbed Indian owners standing by. Gosh! What a circus show with these fellas. This is a factual movie that happened in Kenya............ Right in the eyes of CBK investigators, Charterhouse Bank records being sought were going up in flames and smoke. There was now first hand PROOF that REAL RECORDS WERE GOING TO BE MISSING to explain any discrepancies. These kinds of underworld activities,....the type that the Margaryans do best, can really scare and freak out some folks.

In my view, Mullei's correspondence with then Finance Minister Mwiraria & his briefings to the latter around Sept. 2004, was the turning-point in this saga. Their "joint" resolution to bring on board investigators from the tax body KRA; the toothless but expensive anti-corruption bulldog KACC; the ethics department of the OP and ; the Public Prosecution office,......... was the actual beginning of a detailed cover-up in my view.

But it was not until March 2006, when Mullei finally wrote to the current Finance Minister Amos Kimunya, recommending the withdrawal of Charterhouse Bank's Licence and the seizure of their banking records, that a stand was taken. Mullei was now being too "nosy" and "standing in the way". He had to go. And so the plot to kick him out was hatched and he was naively led into his ousting trap. In comes Jacinta Mwatela at CBK's helm and boom!,..... Back to business as usual since she's ready to play ball, despite having previously given a wonderful Goldenberg testimony. Talking of paid pipers, she would most likely play the tune called by Kimunya the paymaster.

To Kimunya: Just rhetoric questions;

What's up with all this cover-up? Will the public get to the bottom of the Uchumi scandal and the Nakumatt scam when the Finance Minister openly expresses anger towards the shadow Finance Minister, Mr. Billow Kerrow for bringing the matter to our attention? Will he go a step further to end the Goldenberg, Nakumatt-Charterhouse kinds of scams by tabling the money laundering Bill in parliament or will he choose to buy time instead until more looting is done by his cronies? Since resigning is not in the vocabulary of any Banana Minister, which lamb is he ready to sacrifice in Narc's familiar game of public appeasement? The answers to the above questions appear obvious. Tutazidi kukaa vivyo hivyo. Keep up with your good job.

To commissioner of KRA:

KRA's mandate is to pursue taxes even acting on retrograde information,.... have you raised an eyebrow about 18 billion shillings owed to Kenyans by akina Nakumatt and others? What retrograde steps are you taking to collect the said tax from these evadors and cheats killing the business spirit of fair competition Mr Comissioner ? Are you strategically placed at KRA to supervise the deliberate ommission of such taxes from the collectors list? I challenge you to publish a list of all other government friendly companies skewing the business competitive field through your tax ommissions that are hurting the public?

To the Director of KACC:

Kenyans are sick and tired of your tasteless protection of cronies you are meant to investigate and recommend for prosecution. Armed with the Economic Crimes Act & the Act setting up KACC, why haven't you pursued these economic crimes involving tax evasion and money laundering, even within our existing but deficient laws?
Under whose orders did your officers investigating Charterhouse Bank deflate into a silent halt?

It is my opinion that Mr. D. Shah is a notorious capital flight & money laundering pointman whose expertise is the transfer of looted funds from Kenya to overseas accounts with impunity. To slow corruption in Kenya, such thugs must be given a dose of raw justice without the protection of godfathers in KACC, the cabinet or State House. Since I'm talking about Kenya under the watch of Kibaki, I'll be realistic to expect the man (Shah) to roam our streets with arrogant impunity just like Margaryan did recently.

As for Nakumatt, Tusker Mattresses, Kariuki & Co., Tiley Ltd., Paolo Sattanino, Harun Mwau et al, I hope that one day these crooks will be brought to justice and made to pay back retrograde VAT, Corporate Tax and other duties, restitution & assets confiscation, .......then made to face some harsh terms. That may not happen under Kibaki, of course.

Let me wait for akina Koigi's defence of the indefensible.

unedited.

Job

[politicalmaniac]

Job

Where you get the mental stamina and wherewithal to thoroughly dissect issues so comprehensively is beyond me. You A.O and O.O and a few others in this forum are not only true scribes but indeed caring Kenyans. Kudos for this incisve analysis.

At the end of the day the issues you wrote in this paragraph must be resolved

quote " Which KENYAN today can fail to see that it's own President, Mwai Kibaki, is abetting corruption , terrorism, drug-trafficking, and money-laundering through the direct acts of Anglo-Leasing, Mafia-like media raids, Armenian imports of questionable cargo, and the Nakumatt scams respectively? The President does not bat an eye-lid as he occasionally associates with dangerous individals of questionable characters and associations, right within State House".

The operative word being KENYAN.
Thats my biggest worry. A lot of our country men arent seeing this. And leaders are muddying the waters.

Witness Kituyi's obfuscation of issues once again bringing into focus the R Vs Kickback1 fallout. Telling us westerners that FORD-K cant join with "stone throwers" but to stick with this nefarious GOVT.

My prayer is that finally us wanainchi will see through the dense fog and 'homophobic slurilia' this failed regime.

[donworry]

Oh, another scandal? I expect that once the heat is on State House will come out to do the usual thing and issue another one of those "clarifications" to "set the record straight"

It will announce the names of the members of the immediate first family and deny any links with any activists, real or imagined and it will urge all kenyans to work together to stamp out corruption and build the Nation.

Business as usual.

[politicalmaniac]

I am amazed at the staying power of kickback1 and his Bak-inistas.
Scandal after scandal, and yet the outrage is yet to crystallize fully into a mood of voting out kickback1 and his Bak-inista brood of thieves.

I have yet to see a sustained anti-kickback1 sentiment the way I saw it happen with the immeadiate Ex-president.

[kamalet]

Having read the interim reports and also the updates on figures given by Nakumatt in its defence, I am not satisfied that we have all the information at hand, hence immediate judgement would be difficult to make.

It would appear that Nakumatt comes into the picture on the basis of payments it has made to certain people/organisations that may not have made declarations of tax on income. From the face of it, if these 'suppliers' being paid by Nakumatt had provided tax invoices to Nakumatt, then it is them and not Nakumatt that would have evaded taxes. Nakumatt itself would have deducted the VAT on these supplies as input tax against its own tax liabilituy. The big question is whether Nakumatt remitted its share of the tax liability as declared. Unfortunately, none of the investigators have given any information on this one aspect before condemning Nakumatt as a culprit in the scam.

Secondly, some of the figures being bandied about as lost/unpaid tax are rather astronomical and cannot be possibly backed by even declared income! Take the allegation that Uchumi paid 500 million in VAT - this would translate to gross turnover of over 5.5 billion which is no where near any turnover ever recorded by Uchumi! I think we are letting ourselves fall prey of sensational and politicised figures!

Finally, on the basis that the reports are interim, and in order to give them any face, would it not have been in order that the same were given a response by the bank itself, an opportunity the bank claimed it has not been given. Unfortunately all this is water under the bridge, but any movement on this matter will head up into a titanic legal battle that has now been muddled by politicisation!!

[adongo12345]

Kamale

I notice you avoided the real issue at hand here. The issue is not whether Nakumatt is robbing the nation by failing to remit VAT. The issue is why is Kimunya closing CharterHouse Bank now pretending he has just learnt of their activities while he has known what was going on for along time?

Why should the government we elected to protect public interest wait until opposition raises issues to act on things they have known about for years? Is the government doing this to protect the public or just save face?

And then Job has pointed out other outright criminal activities like burning records right before the eyes of investigators from the CBK and no action is taken.

It looks like criminals are running the government with only one objective, get rich as quickly as possible and use the money to buy power and stay longer in government and rob more.

I don't think it is going to work. Even though on the surface it may look like Kibaki keeps lumbering on despite the weight of scandals and stupid blunders like the Artur saga, the political cost is already staggering. Anglo Leasing cost Kibaki his closest allies Mwiraria,. Murungi and Murungaru. The Artur stupidity is going to cost him Michuki and now his personal name and image is right in the mud.

The Kibakites are going to pay heavily for taking Kenyans for granted. They better eat real fast because time is running out. I think we got these guys right where we want them.

Adongo

[politicalmaniac]

A.O

The Bak-nistas never seem to directly confront difficult issues.
Rather they stretch the lies, obfuscate, vacillate, disparage their critics and invoke executive privilege.

The Nakumatt issue is a complex one and I can tell you a lot of the so called "common mwanainchi" cant grasp the details, let alone disinterested educated folk.

But these guys are eating. Rest assured they are.
A good case in point is Kituyu the chief Bak-nista in our western region.
He has become very vociferous in his support of this regime while his portfolio has, overnight, increased geometrically.

His farm that he nyakuad from a tussle with a widow sports heavy machinery that I wonder how he acquired. Thats just the tip of the iceberg for him.

Anyway I can wait for the elections.
Hopefully it will be referendum redux

[kamalet]

adongo12345 said:

Kamale

I notice you avoided the real issue at hand here. The issue is not whether Nakumatt is robbing the nation by failing to remit VAT. The issue is why is Kimunya closing CharterHouse Bank now pretending he has just learnt of their activities while he has known what was going on for along time?


Adongo

NOPE AO,

This thread was about NAKUMATT....just check the header ;D

If you wish me to discuss Charter House Bank, I shall....and very soon!

[roughrider]

Adongo, Job, P- maniac;

Sometimes I wonder if we have incredibly short memories – shorter than the proverbial warthog. Not too long ago, this same government told us they had contracted some professionals to trace money that had been stashed abroad by Kenyans who for years had been engaged in illegal activities or had evaded taxes – I believe it was called Kroll Associates.

The professionals had traced some 80 billion to three individuals alone…. but that was the last we heard of the matter and nobody raised a finger. Today, for very good reasons, we are chagrined that money laundering and tax evasion has been going on unabated. @#$%&? Go figure….

It seems to me that there is a lot of money to be made from drug trafficking. For isn’t that the main issue we are really dealing with here? Why can’t everybody just acknowledge that there is wealthy group of individuals who are minting billions by re-routing drugs through Kenya into Europe and other destinations?

I am confident that the Kibaki administration does not have the political will and ability to catch these people and bring them to book – they are too entrenched into the system anyway - so I will take the extreme liberty to propose another alternative.

So let us negotiate with and facilitate these drug dealers and ask them to pay the exchequer part of their drug billions to support critical economic and social programs such as free primary education. These drugs are hardly sold on Kenyan soil anyway; instead they are given to Europeans and Americans who have the money to feed such expensive habits. All developed continents have progressed through theft and subterfuge: Europe through global theft of natural resources, America through global theft of human resources.

We need to be more innovative and open minded in our approach to issues. When Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia declared that he would never stop Bolivians from growing an economically important crop like Coca, which is used to manufacture cocaine – roughrider cheered.

With the billions we pay for NSIS, surely they can arrange such highly profitable schemes, can't they?

[adongo12345]

"NOPE AO,

This thread was about NAKUMATT....just check the header
If you wish me to discuss Charter House Bank, I shall....and very soon!" Kamale


Yes Kamale

You want to shed some light on the Cheater House Bank.

But really the issue at stake is bigger than Nakumatt, Charter House Bank etc. We are being robbed by the Kibaki government that is the bottom line. Nakumatt is not only conspiring with CH Bank and other banks to evade taxes and possibly to launder the money into foreign bank accounts, the conspiracy must include KRA top honchos and government officials.

Of course the Charter Bank Bank story fits very well with the stereotype of "waindi are chotaring our cash and taking it out of the country"

It reminds me of the Mary Wambui drama. People are pissed off with Wambui and may be they should, but they forget Wambui does not issue passports, Wambui does not issue guns including police guns, Wambui does not confer Assistant Commissioner of Police status and Wambui has no powers to order the Artur thugs and Kenya police to raid newspaper houses and commit arson and robbery.

How is this related to "Waindi's robbing the country"? There is no Shah running Central Bank, the crooks of Nakumatt and Charter House do not work in the Treasury. Nobody elected these people to protect our money. We elected the Kimunyas and other scambags and boy were we ever wrong.

Well time is catching up with them. You notice since parliament opened the original Kibaki agenda of trumpeting the ghost economic boom and other "achievements" has collapsed. It is scandal after scandal and the cabinet is just overwhelmed even the Koigi's are tongue tied. Too much chit as my friend Whispers would say.

It is going to get worse. It is time to bring out the sledge hammer and get this thing over with. It shall be done.

Adongo.

[politicalmaniac]

Roughrider,

The so called drug war has failed to accomplish its mission ever since it got its moniker in the US political system. They should be 'fighting' this 'war' from the demand side not the supply side.

Better still, why not legalize it, tax it and use the resources for treatment for those who want it? But thats onother story.

I am frustrated on the 'short term' memories of our people have you mentioned in your post.
Here we are, 3 1/2yrs into one of the saddest, most pathetic scandal ridden regimes ever in a peaceful era, and yet the fire to advance democracy, better governance, accountability isnt there.

The Bak-nistas seem to have have us figured out. They know we have great tolerance for scandal but not for the tightfistedness a la Moi. As long as they bumble around, steal here and there, and avoid the infamous EA Standard like raids of the killing of innocent protesters, they will cling on.

Then using the muscle of the GOVT, coercive tactics, bribery and negative campaigning, they hope to ride to victory in 2007.

They also know that we as a people have little stomach for retroactive retribution because the line of defense for the accused will be 'sisi of this tribe tuna malizwa'. Retreating into tribal cocoons is a well honed political trick that invariably works and shields the accusers from a vigorous prosecution.

We need a Truth and Reconciliation committee after 2007, that will have the power to grant absolute amnesty to these thieves if they repartriate their ill gotten wealth, and also lay the full hand of the law on those trying to keep that wealth.