Weekend Read: Gist into Sudhir’s Ssimbamannyo and Afrique Suites Deal that Could turn into a Gambling Gone Bad

Let us state this straight away. It is exactly for questioning these kinds of funny things that businessman Sudhir Ruparelia ended up criminally hiring hackers to put down this irresistible website. Despite the fact that we have been hacked and called all sorts of names by Sudhir Ruparelia, his agents and armpit websites, we have remained steadfast. This is because we do believe that the truth always prevails, no matter after how long.

On Wednesday, Justice Stephen Mubiru directed Equity Bank to surrender top secret email correspondences which ended with businessman Sudhir Ruparelia buying the multi-million Ssimbamannyo building, not only at a mock auction, but also at grossly discounted prices. The same order requires Equity to surrender the emails and account number of Luwangula Investments, which is highly suspected to have been used by Sudhir to buy another property known as Afrique Suites in Mutungo. Both Ssimbamannyo and Afrique belonged to City Architecture, Peter Kamya.

This investigative website had leaked all the documents previously, which the Judge is now asking to be perused by Court. We did it since we are of the firm and well considered view that the same are so critical. And so, and without which, the ends of justice cannot be met in these matters. Understandably, Sudhir and Equity had put up a big fight against the production of the emails plus other documents involved in these transactions. We shall explain.

The emails clearly indicate that there was actually no auction and that what was staged as an auction, in point of fact, took place before the legally prescribed date. For the record, Equity Bank themselves advertised in the newspapers, the auction to take place on October 8, 2020. Yet, Sudhir was as early as October 1^st 2020 secretly depositing USD1M to the bank. This was taking place unmistakably a week prior to the duly publicized auction.

The bank itself had secretly contacted Sudhir on October 1^st 2020. By doing this, the financial institution was now clearly engaging in vending (okutembeya) the two properties. This position, since the bank itself had advertised that the properties would be sold at a public auction on October 8^th 2020. Going by the fact that the properties were sold secretly and on a date different from the one advertised to the public, one can confidently assert that the bank told a lie to the public.

The lie was calculated to lock out the other prospective buyers, other than Sudhir, from the actual auction process. As indeed the bank and Sudhir had secretly intrigued before. The financial institution’s lawyer, Sim Katende covertly sent an email to the one of Sudhir known as Nelson Walusimbi, vending the Ssimbamannyo building. Alert to the illegality of the deal he was gambling into, Sudhir instructed Walusimbi to seek for a guarantee that his deposit amount would be refunded to him in case the deal collapsed.

Aware that the deal could boomerang, Equity instructed its lawyers to write back conceding to Sudhir’s wish. Indeed, Equity issued the performance guarantee which Justice Mubiru now demands to look at. The domino effect of what we have written so far is that the proper auction never ever took place and at any rate possible. Please refer also, to our story under the title;“An Auction that Never Was: Details how Dr. Sudhir bought Ssimbamannyo seven days before the due date for public sale.”

The conduct of the bank and Sudhir are too clear to infer the conclusion that a proper auction as had been envisaged by the bank itself in its Ad, didn’t, alas, take place. What took place was evidently machinations and connivance between the purported seller and the purported buyer whose plain purpose was to defeat the auction that had been, moreover, falsified to deceive the public that it was indeed going to happen on October 8^th but which was irregularly held on October 1^st.

There is certainly a very clear difference between the date of October 8^th and October 1^st. One doesn’t need to be a judge, banker, lawyer and even a tycoon first, to figure out this. Any Primary Two leaner can be able to tell the difference between the figure of 1 and 8. Even using the difference in dates between what the bank stated was going to be the auction date, and when it actually took place, any person of average intelligence can tell that not only was the auction false, but also irregular.

And since a nullity has been held by the courts previously to always remain a nullity and nothing else, we can hazard a guess that this deal was a nullity with its grave consequences. The controversies riddling the Ssimbamannyo deal, are the same riddling the Afrique deal. Both were advertised to be sold on October 8^th. Both were actually sold on October 1^st. The dates of sale of the two properties, even without interrogating the exact date when the auction was meant to take place, reveals something very, very interesting. That something is that the buyer of the two properties was one and the same.

We fail to believe that each one of the two buyers made a decision to avoid the set auction date and even settled for the same date on which to buy the two different properties. Keep this at the back of your memory. We shall revert to it in another way. Further to the above, the process of transferring the two properties from the original names to the purported buyers, leaves a lot to be desired.

Caveats had been duly placed over the two properties. For the uninitiated, caveats are placed on land to stop any third party from altering the ownership of that particular property. Any request to withdraw the caveat must be communicated to the person or entity which had lodged the caveat in the first place, at the address appearing on the face of the caveat itself. For demonstration purposes, we have seen Ads in the newspapers always placed by the land office requesting people who had lodged caveats to appear in situations where a third party had walked into the land office and questioned the presence of any caveat entered on any land title.

What this seems to imply is that the land office, except in rare cases or where the person who had placed the caveat fails to appear, cannot move itself to vacate any caveat duly lodged and with its consent and approval. In the two instant cases, the owner of the properties, Architect Peter Kamya had duly lodged caveats over them. He did this with the approval and consent of the land office. But the two instruments would be vacated and the two properties curiously and suspiciously transferred to third parties at a speed that can only be described as supersonic.

If, Kamya wasn’t invited to say something before his earlier caveats were removed, who else then was offered the right to be heard on his behalf before the caveats were finally removed? Still on it, isn’t it trite and basic principle of law that a person should never ever be condemned unheard? If so, why did then, the land office quickly remove the caveats lodged by Kamya and quickly transferred the Title in third parties before quickly placing fresh caveats thereon? Let us agree for the sake of it that the auction took place on October 8^th as the bank and Sudhir want us to believe it was the case.

Isn’t it queer that on that very day, the land office was able to remove the caveats of Kamya! And even transferred the Title into third parties in a space of only two hours? And, even went on to place caveats on the two properties in a space of only three minutes! By the way, if the transactions were clean themselves, why was that rush to remove the caveats, transfer very quickly and then place new caveats? What was the rush intended to achieve and stop! Could it be that someone somewhere else was at the same time as the land office, was fast-tracking the process of altering the ownership of the properties, also moving to stop what was going on!

The fact that the two Titles were moving at exactly the same time and in a similar manner in the land office, reveals something interesting. That something is that the buyer of the two properties must have been one and the same. Let us now move to the Afrique Suites property. Its buyer is recorded by Equity Bank as Luwaluwa Investments. This company was represented by a gentleman known as Ronald Luwangula.

Let’s agree for the sake of argument that Luwangula isn’t the Court Clerk we absolutely know he is. (Also read: Ssimbamannyo Escapades: Shock as Supreme Court Clerk writes history after paying a cool USD4M in record time to claim Eng. Kamya’s lucrative property). Sudhir paid a deposit amounting to USD1M. He was paying for Ssimbamannyo building. He paid that money into the account of the lawyers of Equity Bank held in that bank. Katende, Ssempebwa and Company Advocates are those lawyers. What do we see next? A total of USD700K leaves the account of Equity’s lawyers. Where does it end up? On the account of Luwaluwa Investments! What is Luwaluwa being paid for? Sorry, it’s not indicated.

In essence, the money that is supposed to be paid to Equity bank, as a deposit for the purchase of Ssimbamannyo, is now being diverted to a stranger. A stranger who is neither part of Equity, the seller of Ssimbamannyo, nor Meera Investments, the buyer of Ssimbamannyo! Kindly don’t forget that the person being paid the big dollars is indicated at the same time by Equity, to be the wealthy buyer of the other Afrique Suites in Mutungo!

How the stranger has now quickly been embraced by both Equity and Sudhir, is as intriguing as these transactions are. Honestly, how did the two completely different people, happen on each other. And then both ended up negotiating two purchases involving properties belonging to one person. And also, one of them ended up generously gifting big dollars to the other! Ok, the balance of three hundred United States Dollars is paid out, not to Equity still, but as recovery costs for Ssimbamannyo!

Author Profile

Stephen Kasozi Muwambi: Mr. Stephen Kasozi Muwambi is a seasoned crime investigative writer, majoring in judicial-based stories. His two decades’ experience as a senior investigative journalist has made him one of the best to reckon on in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected]