A magistrate has ordered two former senior managers of Chase Bank arrested for failing to appear in court to plead to charges of conspiring to defraud the bank of more than Shs.6 billion.
Milimani senior principal magistrate Martha Mutuku ordered police to arrest Mr Abdul Ahmed and Mr Ghanrish Omar after they failed to comply with earlier court summons requiring them to attend court yesterday to take plea.
At the same time, two other Chase Bank managers, Mr Amiran Claudia and Mr Mo-hammed Khan, through their lawyer Cecil Miller (right) made an application objecting to plea taking in the same case, saying the charges against them were defective. The Director of Public Prosecutions, through senior state counsel James Warui, asked the court for more time to respond to the defence application. The magistrate, however, ordered the application to be heard on September 7 before giving further direction. The four are jointly charged alongside former Chase Bank chairman Mohamed Zafrullah Khan. The three other accused are Mr Ducan Kabui Gichui (former group managing director), Mr James Mwenja (former general manager of credit) and Mr Makaros Agumbi (former finance manager) who have since denied various counts of fraud. They are out on She million cash bail each.
The prosecution alleges that between August 28, 2009 and March 31, 2016 they conspired with intent to defraud Chase Bank by pretending that the disbursement of Shi.6 billion they effected from internal accounts to other firms were genuine loan facilities and were disbursed through an ordinary process. The case will be mentioned on October 2 on the application by Mr Miller that the charge against Mr Claudia and Mr Khan is defective.
