We came across this communication at the backdrop of our investigations in regard to intel that had slipped into ours, about the reported sacking of Samuel Kirubi, the five-year long serving Managing Director for Equity Bank – Uganda. “You could be right. For, we have just been invited for an urgent meeting tomorrow, for an important announcement,” one of the staffers we called for the strep (situation report) at the Bank responded last night.

Earlier in the day, news had hit our editorial room indicating how the country MD for Equity Bank, the Kenyan Samuel Kirubi, had been ordered to clean his desk and leave office with immediate effect. These orders were also relayed to two senior managers in Faith Lapula, the Manager in charge of Recovery and, Enock Kakumirizi, the Collections Manager. That the affected officials are attached to the larger credit section of the Bank, echoed a signal on what could be the matter.

Indeed, the public is knowledgeable of several outcries regarding this financial facility`s variances in loans given out to their clients. In these pages lies several stories of how the top management at the Bank connived with city businessman Sudhir Ruparelia before they fraudulently sold him two prime properties. These are Afrique Suits in Mutungo and, Ssimbamannyo commercial facility in the city center. The properties belonging to Architect Peter Kamya were sold to Sudhir seven days before the auction due date they had themselves, widely advertised in papers.

Now, our tentative findings indicate that Kirubi and his subordinate accomplices had their plight driving into their direction via issues to do with bad loans and discrepancies surrounding the same. Intel before us has it that Kirubi`s sacking was partly sparked off by the Country`s regulatory body, Bank of Uganda via an audit. We are authoritatively informed of at least three big loans Kirubi is supposed to write off under instructions from BOU, before he can finally handover. This stance, because the same had already gone bad under his watch.

The handover process commencing today might last for thirty days. That’s how messy the mess in-there is. Apparently, the Central Bank had also, for over a year now, jammed to renew their approval of Kirubi in the MD capacity, citing incompetence on his side. Upon sourcing for Kirubi`s replacement following this refusal to renew him, the incoming MD reportedly called for an internal audit so as to get an insight of the uphill facing him. Indeed, BOU carried out an audit that resulted in, even recommending for the writing off of the three huge loans.

Sources mention the three big loans as that of a prominent but controversial city businessman, John Bosco Muwonge, which staggers around UGX47Bn. Information is rife that Muwonge bought most of his siblings Godfrey Ssebalamu and Nabukeera`s properties using most of the money from Equity Bank and some from  Bank of Africa. The other loans are that of Mogas whose digits are also in Billions, as well as another of a Matugga-premised Company whose particulars are for the next story. In Faith Lapula and Enock Kakumirizi`s case, we are ably informed, the duo is faced with accusations of undeservedly selling clients` mortgages prematurely.

They have hitherto been based at Katwe-premised Branch on the third floor. We collect how teary curses from customers are haunting them left, right, and center. This stance, as they allegedly, used to sell properties of clients who were under recovery, but straggling to pay in slow bits.

“They would wait for such clients` crawling payments to reach around 75% of the loan repayment, then sell off their properties cheaply,” offered the source. They would allegedly use the proceeds from such sales to pay off the Bank`s 25% balance and walk away with the rest of the money, of course accompanied with tears of loss from their victimized clients.

This fraudulent practices were unveiled through a court case that was dismissed with heavy costs on Friday, whose particulars we shall delve into in upcoming stories in this regard. Reliable information also has it that after Kirubi writing off the above-mentioned loans, the hitherto fast-growing financial institution will have registered the worst loss of their lifetime

This was at the time some ordinary but farsighted Muslims first introduced the idea to him. The Investigator is privileged to have finally chanced upon insiders who virtually knows everything about the Greenland empire before it came down crumbling like a pack of cards. One of the insiders wrote to us and we now let him tell the story:

“Hajj SULAIMAN Kiggundu was never the Founder neither the founding Shareholder of First Islamic Bank (FIBA). The main man behind FIBA was Hajj Suleiman Lule. He then owned Sole Electrics (Official owners and sponsors of Sam Ssali rally car) and Bhazma International (the first Private local company to get an export license for Tea and Match; International Ltd.)

The other founding shareholders were; Hajj Ssevviiri, Hajj Kangavve of HAKS, Hajj Jjumba Masagazi, Hajj Mityana, Hajji Kaddu Kiberu, Hajj Kaweesi (Sun International) and Omukooki Hajj Lutta of Peacock Dry cleaners among two others. Those were the initial shareholders of FIBA, the holding Company for Greenland bank [later]. Kiggundu at first completely refused to join the bank as he under looked the above “farmers” as incompetent to start a bank.

Embwa yamala kumuluma najukira nti abasiramu batandikawo bank.(Editor: The writer wants to communicate that Kiggundu’s firing as the governor Bank of Uganda helped him remember of the other `farmers` idea and he rejoined them to grow their bank idea).

Remember, the first branch and head office of Greenland bank was at Kitgum House on Jinja road before the newcomer Kiggundu finally built its home at Kampala Road adjacent to Bank of Uganda. Jokingly speaking, Kiggundu jumped on the Greenland bandwagon from City Square where its original owners had struggled and driven it to.

The wealthy and much experienced banker would talk the originators of the idea into selling to him a big stake in the bank and even renamed it Greenland from First Islamic Bank (FIBA). 

FIBA would later turn into an exclusive coffee processing and export company but without leaving the Greenland empire which included a university, insurance company and UCB,” Our source penned off, just for the record. 

While the Bank is perhaps known for its mandate of maintaining stable prices and supervising financial institutions, it also recognizes that they operate within communities. 

As such, they cannot achieve their complete mandate if the community they serve is not healthy. That’s why it is important for them to as well focus on the wellbeing of mothers due to their undisputed contribution to society. 

Today, the regulator of commercial banking institutions in Uganda has officially handed over Hamurwa Health Centre IV in Rubanda District focusing on the wellbeing of mothers due to their noble contribution. 

Theatre transfers have been a big challenge at Hamuwra Health Centre IV due to the hilly nature of the area. The ramp and walk way constructed will ease movement of patients from the theatre to the recovery ward. Approximately 100 mothers deliver every month at Hamurwa Health Centre IV, out of which 30 deliver by caesarean section.

Hamurwa Health Centre IV is meant to serve a catchment area of 8,000 people; however, the Health Center also receives people from the districts of Kanungu, Kisoro, Rukiga and Rukungiri.

Gaining on the momentum of the success of the first initiatives under BoU@50, the Bank has now committed funds to revamp Health Centers nationwide. The Bank also continues to revamp health centers in Jinja, Masaka and Fort Portal with work scheduled to be accomplished soon. 

Nakaloke Health Centre III in Mbale and Omel Health Centre II in Gulu District are the other Health facilities that have already been renovated and handed over to the respective district leaders. 

Revamping and renovating of Health Centres was one of the ‘Give back to communities’ resolutions as the financial regulator was marking 50 years in 2016. They (BoU) decided to commemorate that anniversary through CSR initiatives, including a Charity Walk to that helped to raise funds for purchasing of medical equipment and renovating health centres in some of the districts across the country.

And upon completion of his investigations that he had conducted as Director of Litigation for the Federal Home Loan Bank, where CEO Charles Keating and hundreds of other S&L owners took advantage of a weak regulatory environment to rob from their own financial institutions, William Black authored a book and rightly named it; “The best way to rob a bank is to own one.”

The above intro fits in well with most privately owned financial institutions` proprietors. In these pages lie several stories on how Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia aka SR, robed clean his Crane Bank, to the tune of warranting Bank of Uganda`s intervention in a bid to save the economy. He had clandestinely designed a way of solely owning the bank through proxies, hence doing whatever he wished with the savers` dimes! More to this later. 

Today, we focus on a new entrant, Dr. Paul Kammangne Fokam, the Cameroonian tycoon and owner of Afriland First Bank Uganda Limited, premised along Buganda Road on Plots 7/11. For starters, Fokam is among the unsung filthily rich personas around the African continent and beyond. 

His company headquarters based in Switzerland; he also boasts of over 40 branches spread around Africa. He is also a property mogul said to have a string of possessions to his name in all African countries, save for Uganda where, he`s just been introduced. For starters, for a foreign company to own and run a business in Uganda, having a `local content` (read indigenous shareholders), is one of the prerequisites.

Initially, Fokam`s company had two shareholders namely Afriland First Group SA and the man himself. And for him to obtain an operational certificate to run a Bank, Fokam raised the number of shareholders to seven, with a `local content` in Hajji Muyanja Mbabaali. However, the latter was rejected by the Central Bank for a wanting credible persona. 

With Hajji Mbabaali`s rejection, Fokam subsequently changed the Company`s shareholding and Directorship status and admitted another Ugandan, Cliff Masagazi as a shareholder/Director with 15{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} shares. It is through Masagazi that the company lobbied and successfully obtained the License to run a financial institution named Afriland First Band (U) Limited. 

Other shareholders included Afriland First Group SA with 35{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe}, Afriland Firs Bank Guinea with 13{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe}, Mohamadou DABO with 11.5{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe}, Jean Samuel NOUTCHGOUN with 10{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe}, Samuel Kameugne Soup with 4.5{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} and Dr. Paul K. Fokam the man himself, interestingly with a meagre 1{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} share. 

It should be noted that Masagazi`s shares were not only for playing the `local content’ role but also his resourcefulness in doing the donkey`s work of ensuring the general set up of the company, as well as pursuing and obtaining the Banking License from Bank of Uganda. Upon setting off of business on the track, Fokam and group developed second thoughts on Masagazi`s Directorship and shareholding and now wanted him out. Yes, out with empty pockets. 

“That however, after a short while, the Company`s Managing Director, a one Hamadou-Hamadou started excluding your Petitioner [Read Masagazi] from involvement in the affairs of the Company without any legal justification. That your Petitioner tried to engage the other Shareholders and Directors to redress his said exclusion but without much success,” reads in part, Court documents in an Appeal before High Court in Kampala. 

Masagazi, through his lawyers of Muwema and Company Advocates, filed the Appeal after a questionable ruling by Judge Musa Ssekaana on June 24^th 2021, that he had not a single document supporting his claim of the 15{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} shares. This stance, even with the presence of documents from the Registrar of Companies holding him as a shareholder, before Court. 

It all started when, after exclusion from the Company`s business transactions, Masagazi wanted to bow out. He wrote asking them to buy him off and leave. But they reiterated by claiming that they owed him not a single coin since his shares were not `officially` paid for! However, our following of this matter landed us on some documents whose particulars expose Fokam as a replica of Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia in the defunct Crane Bank case.  

We have landed on an agreement between Fokam and Masagazi, indicating that whereas officially the latter owned 15{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} shares, he was holding 12{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} shares for and on behalf of the former. This development may require the Regulator, Bank of Uganda to revisit the shareholding status at Afriland Bank, to ensure other shareholders are genuinely holding theirs individually, and not on behalf of Fokam who, claim to have only 1{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} share in his own Company. 

In the said agreement titled `Deed of Arrangement`, Masagazi is named as 1^st Party and Fokam as 2^nd Party. “The 1^stParty shall continue to hold the shares in the Company in arrangement for the 2^nd Party except for 3{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} of the shares which is not the subject of this arrangement and which the 1^st Party shall hold and retain to his name as his private property with all rights attached,” reads part of the Deed. 

For the avoidance of any doubt, the number of ordinary shares that Masagazi is meant to continue holding on behalf of Fokam is 5,163,097,505.4. “And for all intents and purposes, the 2^nd Party shall not lay any legal claim to the said 3{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} of the shares which belong to the 1^st Party,” further reads the agreement which, in our view, might attract serious attention from Regulator, BoU.

In this agreement, whose particulars are entirely in total abuse of Financial Institutions Act, Masagazi had to “sign a transfer form of shares for the 12{0945c2a372ac1e8bbfe7cc3e10f9b82eb0b8ae872b07368d754f0396b6ef2afe} shares in the Company in favor of the 2^nd Party which shall be kept by the 2^nd Party as his security for the interest until that time when it will be appropriate to transfer.” Watch this space…   

While we are finally relieved following the arrest, interrogation and statement recording of the people who hacked into our website and social media accounts, we are equally sorry for the hackers and their accomplices since they were used by arguably a heartless man who is out there puffing away.

It is really sad knowing that the suspects are young men lured into crime by a person fit to be their dad. As Sudhir Ruparelia and his family mind their businesses, the young people he led into trouble like a sheep being led into the slaughter house, are suffering. Sudhir managed to prey on these youths merely because they are poor. Because they are poor, they accepted the meager dimes he had to throw their way!

As we wrote warning the country about Sudhir, the young people now in trouble, on the contrary chose to join the oppressor and harassed us the messengers. They knew what they were doing was wrong, but Sudhir nevertheless convinced them to do the wrong thing using money.

This is only in our case but, Sudhir has used quite a number of people whom he dumps after falling out with them. Then he, using these young men and the poor keyboard warriors to character assassinate his ex-pals. The list is long but we shall dwell on a notable few:

Prof. Mutebile

Before falling out with Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile over the closure of Crane Bank, Sudhir had used the good professor to issue reports year after year reflecting a rosier picture of the bank even when it was running into limbo.

The good professor would later eat his words after the closure of Crane Bank by admitting how Sudhir was cooking up figures which he would pass over to him, hence causing him to tell lies about the stability of the bank.

UK magazine

As Mutebile goofed away, another respectable business magazine printed in the UK, the Business Week was also using fake reports to pile Crane bank with awards year in year out!

Parliament, Judiciary

This is exactly how parliament and the justices ended up hounding the whistleblowers in Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, Justine Bagyenda and Louis Kasekende for merely doing the right thing of closing the bank which Sudhir had robbed dry. Sudhir was not only awarded hefty damages by the justices, but the same are supposed to be met by the taxpayers of which the justices are one.

Sudhir used parliament to clear him of the mess he caused at Crane Bank. Sudhir being Sudhir, he managed to move parliament to investigate Bank of Uganda and clear him yet other banks had suffered the same fate before and their fate did not reach parliament save after Crane bank was closed.

Muweebwa

Sudhir hounded Sylvia Ntambi Muweebwa out of her job as the boss of the Equal Opportunity Commission. It came to this level simply because the poor lady raised a red flag when the tycoon attempted to use her to have the Commission rent into his Kingdom Kampala building.

Hell broke loose when Muweebwa refused Sudhir’s evil advances. The poor lady was not only arraigned in court on flimsy charges of asking for bribes from Sudhir and abused in newspapers, but was finally  hounded out of her job. Months after going through a fake trial, Muweebwa was finally released never to receive her job back and with her integrity in tatters.

Compare this with us who Sudhir has framed blackmailers and extortionists, never mind that he tried to use people to approach us with money in order to stop exposing him, to see how dangerous this man is.

Supreme Court Clerk Luwangula

In order to buy Afrique Suites Hotel, Sudhir used a ‘poor’ man known as Ronald Luwangula who he staged as the buyer after paying him USD700, 000. We exposed the scam complete with evidence, indicating how Luwangula is a mere court clerk incapable of raising USD3.2m which Sudhir paid for the hotel. For saying this truth, Sudhir used poor men to hack us.

AG Joseph Ekemu

While buying Speke Hotel, which was owned by Ferroz Kassam along with others, Sudhir used a whole Attorney General and a man older enough to be his dad, Joseph Ekemu. An astute lawyer, senior citizen, experienced legislator, Ekemu ended up lifting the caveat which Kassam had lodged on the Title of Speke Hotel, helping the rogue to own the same! As Ekemu suffered embarrassment of being hounded out of his office, Sudhir was on the other hand busy looking for other properties to ‘buy’.

Ali Reza Kalan

Sudhir used Ali Reza Kalan aka A.R Kalan to mess up Crane Bank. He then cooked up stories of how he had run away with UGX50Bn intended to justify the hemorrhage he had visited on the bank. He has since switched off the poor banker and caused his disappearance to stop investigators from using him to tell the true story of Crane Bank.  

Sudhir further used Kalan to switch the properties of Crane Bank into the names of Meera Investments, remembering it is Kalan who brought the proposal of changing the properties from leasehold into freehold before Sudhir bought them cheaply and even permanently took them over instead of being a leaser.

Kakwenzire, Abdu Matovu

He used proxies to grab the property at Plot 8 Nakasero complete with a Title made from Nasser road, but which the President gratefully removed from him. The people he used are Abdu Matovu, who has since disappeared fearing prosecution and Davis Kakwenzire, a land grabber the President once ordered to be arrested.

Gen. Jim Muhwezi

He tried but failed to use Maj. Gen Jim Muhwezi Katugugu to help him escape prosecution for smuggling dollars out of Uganda. Like we have reported already in these pages, Sudhir sent money to the private accounts of the wife of Muhwezi, Suzan Muhwezi then held in the defunct Nile Bank.

Asmok Patel

He used to own the famous Kikagati Enterprises on Luwum Street dealing in farm implements. Sudhir joined Asmok while starting Premier Cricket Club. He then grabbed the name of Premier to start Premier Lotteries, but kicked Patel out later on. Patel ended up with a lot of unpaid loans and in Luzira prison. He died a disgruntled and poor fella! Like we said, the list is long, but the above can suffice for the time being.

According to the forensic report whose particulars are wrapped in a 153-page booklet, and the same we shall serialize, the businessman did not only stop at paying peanuts for the otherwise prime Crane Bank buildings, but he made sure the wealthy landlord he had thus effectively turned into a tenant, paid cripplingly in terms of lease and ground rent as well!

To ensure that Crane Bank as an entity never ever, in future get back the buildings, Sudhir commanded, but of course fraudulently, his sidekicks working with the financial institution to have the land holding the properties converted from leasehold into freehold!

What the above means is that Sudhir obtained both the buildings and the land holding them on permanent basis as opposed to being a tenant of the same. If the reverse was true, he was supposed going forward, to pay lease fees to the landlord which was supposed to be Crane Bank Limited itself.

Seeing that the bank factually belonged to Sudhir himself, never mind the propaganda to the contrary, even an imbecile can easily figure out the awkward situation the financial institution faced while negotiating the evidently impugned deal for the simple fact that it wasn’t naturally expected to disagree with the terms set by its proprietor.

This is why regardless of the location, size or development of the buildings at stake, Sudhir, who was clearly the seller and the buyer at the same time, given his dominant position as the owner of the bank whose properties he desperately sought to convert, ended paying a flat fee of UGX100m for each and every building!

To demonstrate possibly the upper hand Sudhir boasted of in these matters, the seller was not permitted to value the properties before selling them out. Consequently, the bank lost the opportunity to place the true prices on each of the properties Sudhir ended up purchasing.

 What happened, the shrewd businessman merely conjured up figures from his bald head and then threw the prices he desired to buy the plots at! And as we all know, the bank wasn’t expected to raise a finger against its owner!

“From our interviews with senior management, the consideration for the sale of the bank’s land was not informed by an independent valuation of the land,” the forensic report has it.

Dismissing the UGX100m purchase for as pitiable, the report adds, “It is highly unusual that the bank would accept such a flat fee for each of the property sold to Meera Investments Limited (MIL) because at the time it had parcels of land worth more than this amount.”

The above line justifies our contention about the existence of an invisible hand which was actively manipulating the sale and purchase behind the scenes. That invisible hand we know was Sudhir Ruparelia the man himself. Well, to simplify the kind of profiteering Sudhir committed in these transactions, let’s quote the money the bank paid for some of the plots of land as per the bank’s Fixed Assets Register.

We go: Plot No.93 Block 7, Mengo, Kibuga Ndeeba was bought at UGX1Bn. Plot No.1 Ishaka Fort Portal Road, Cell Ward 4 was bought at 715m, Plot 55 Main Street Jinja (Ush700m), Plot22 Kampala Road Entebbe (Ush650m) Plot No88 Block18, Kibuga Nateete (Ush650m) and Plot No18, Jinja Road, Mukono (Ush619).

But, when Sudhir chose to ‘buy’ the plots, the shameless rascal paid a mere UGX100m for each of them! Since Crane Bank spent 4,334,136,000 on purchasing these plots, simple arithmetic would show the cad ended up paying a mere Ush600m for all the plots combined! And for this reason, the businessman robbed his own bank by a whopping UGX3, 734,136,000!

Yet for just two years Sudhir was the landlord, Crane Bank not only forked out a colossal USD4.6m in rent, but the apparently cowed financial institution was also made to pay twice in respect of Plot40A Kampala road. The bank paid two payments of USD237, 364.08 apiece to Meera Investments Limited (MIL) and Crane Management Services, as per an invoice recovered by the investigators. The two companies belongs to Sudhir.

But even more scandalous, the fact that Crane bank used a combined total of Ush29.8Bn to purchase the land as well as to erect the buildings Sudhir purchased as captured in its books of December 31^st 2012, it would unmistakably imply that Sudhir cheated the bank by a whopping UGX26.4Bn when he chose to purchase the properties in the manner he chose to.

Don’t drop dead yet, Sudhir not only cheated Crane Bank as we have ably illustrated above, but also went ahead and grabbed all its furniture and fittings worth a whopping UGX13.6Bn! As everyone would know, after procuring all the dirty work he procured, Sudhir now commanded his workers at Crane Bank to hide the same from the prying eyes of the Central Bank.

He instructed his workers not to reflect the losses on its books. He did so because he was understandably aware that what he had just carried out was not only criminal, but also actionable at law.

Factor in the fact that the businessman even intimidated Crane Bank into meeting all the costs that goes with transactions of this nature, including one converting it from a landlord into a tenant, to see how callous this honorary Doctor of the banana republic can be. Watch this space…  

This stance comes weeks after he was admitted to Nakasero hospital in Kampala over liver complications thought to have been compounded by heavy drinking. The singer joins celebrities who have quit heavy drinking recently, among others, Central Bank Governor, Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile.

Mutebile dropped his favorite whisky bottle after his doctors told him he would die prematurely from liver complications if he kept imbibing the liquor. Chameleone, known for his lust for red label, on top of chain smocking, had initially let go of hard liquor and resorted to wine thinking his liver complications would subside, but in vain.

The disease persisted even with wine, forcing him to drop it as well, at least for some months. The Star has since resolved to take a personal initiative by discarding off all his alcohol shelves both at home and offices, as well as scaling down on his social stints.

To ensure compliance, Chameleone has since designated his mother to watch over him so that he doesn’t go back to his boozing sprees. Lately, he’s spending more time at Route Entertainment studios in Bunga where, he is working on his forthcoming album titled ‘I am Joseph’, with selected producers like Hannington Bugingo and song writer Oman Rafiki, slated for release on 9^th October.

By God’s Grace, the burly businessman, also the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal to Uganda today, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia one time in the past gave out a really fat bribe but the carrot ended up boomeranging on him.

Under fire for charges related to money laundering, Sudhir offered the bribe to the current security minister, Maj. Gen. Jim Katugugu Muhwezi who at the time, was a Brigadier and head of the yesteryears no-nonsense Internal Security Organization (ISO).

The year was 1991, Muhwezi had arrested Sudhir for trying to smuggle the foreign currencies out of the country. The businessman was chilling in police cells awaiting arraignment after which he was actually remanded in Luzira prison for four months before court released him on bail.

Fearing for the worst, Sudhir decided to wire a bribe amounting to ten million shillings to the Brig. Jim Muhwezi’s wife Account at the then Nile Bank along Jinja Road. He wired the money in equal instalments of UGX5M. He sent the first instalment on November 1^st 1991 and on November 2^nd 1991.

The money was intended to be an inducement for Muhwezi and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) personnel, to block investigations and proceedings of a case in which Ruparelia was accused of attempting to smuggle checks and drafts amounting to UGX194M through Entebbe International Airport.

Aged 35 at the time, Sudhir lost it when Muhwezi rejected the bribe and instead informed the police who charged the giver with corruption, thereby complicating matters for the struggling businessman who was facing charges of the smuggled foreign currencies already.

He was arraigned before then City Chief Magistrate Edward Bamwite. Upon the charges being read to him, Sudhir asked for bail through his lawyer, Henry Kayondo. But the prosecution opposed him, contending that since the suspect had audaciously tried to bribe the DG ISO, he had proven himself capable of interfering with investigations.

The prosecution further submitted how Sudhir on securing bail would be tempted to flee from trial, being a foreigner. Lastly, Sudhir had dodged a number of questions during interrogation by the police, prosecution continued, which meant he was hiding something. Court ultimately remanded Sudhir in order to go and make a ruling on the bail application.

The Sudhir Project

Sudhir Project has been lately running in these pages. This is after he branded the Investigator CEO, Stanley Ndawula, as a total ‘extortionist’ and ‘blackmailer’. He piled this heave on Ndawula after we published a story of how the honorary Doctor had reportedly bought Simbamannyo House from Equity Bank via ‘proven’ fraud.

The story titled ‘An Auction that never was (…) got Sudhir so incensed to the point of hiring hackers who, entered into Ndawula’s social media networks. His agents used the Accounts to post disgusting stuff including nude pics of a one 21yr old Aisha Mutesi, a girl Ndawula had never known before. On top of that, his media team released story after story against Ndawula.

Not done, the hackers went for all the Investigator Staff members’ accounts and started producing stuff suggesting that all is not well between Ndawula and his colleagues namely, Mr. Muwambi Stephen and Mr. Jacko David Waluluka. The same Accounts are still in the hands of Sudhir’s hackers and are still being used against Ndawula and the Investigator… (Story for another day).

“He started it all. My intention is to inform the public how Dr. Sudhir has no moral authority to label anyone an ‘extortionist and blackmailer,’ he himself qualifies for the same. By the time we are done with him, the public will be contented how the man has ably lived a different life far away from his real one,” Ndawula said last night.  

And this seem the stance under which the city Engineer, Peter Kamya lost his Simbamannyo Building to Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia’s Meera Investments Limited, in a mock auction where, money exchanged hands long before the due date of the supposed auction! This is the position, if the evidence deposited with Court by Kamya’s lawyers, is dependable…

Court documents before the Investigator desk indicate how Equity Bank, through their lawyers of Katende Ssempebwa and Co. Advocates, received USD1m from Dr. Sudhir’s, over a week before the due auction time. In an email to Sudhir’s Lawyer, Nelson Walusimbi, on September 25^th 2020 at 2:09PM, copied to all stakeholders in the feared foul transaction, Counsel Sim Katende gives the purpose of the dimes as a ‘performance based guarantee.’

“Dear Nelson, I have made some slight edits and tracked the changes and copied all parties. My understanding is that the deposit will be made to our account and the Bank will be the one issuing us with instructions as to how the money should be dispersed because it will have issued your client with a guarantee. Please review and confirm this is the same understanding all round and we can conclude this.” Sim’s email reads.

While the bank advertised in the newspapers announcing the building was to be auctioned on October 8^th 2020, its lawyers proceeded to receive an advance payment from Sudhir totaling to USD1M.  Sudhir eventually bought the building at five billion shillings in what now Eng. Peter Kamya says was just a song. He says all this happened amidst the course of filing an appeal. Nevertheless, Equity rushed to sell, in order to negate the appeal process which he had set in motion already.

Asked why they took up this uphill task of grappling to recover an already sold property, Counsel Charles Nsubuga of Muwema and Company Advocates said; “Mr. Sudhir paid the money on October 1, 2020, a week before the auction which Equity had duped the public to believe was going to take place on October 8, 2020. Our client believes his property was fraudulently sold.”

In response to Sim’s email, Sudhir’s Counsel Nelson Walusimbi of Walusimbi & Co. Advocates made his counterpart to swear upon the living God that in case the Bank sold the prime property to anyone else minus Sudhir, the entire USD1M had to be refunded in entirety. “My understanding is that Meera Investments Limited (MIL) wishes to have an assurance of a refund of its money in full in the event that the intended transaction does not materialize…” wrote Walusimbi.

After confirming the availability of the deal vide an agreement signed by all parties, with an assurance that Equity would sell the building to him, Sudhir wired the USD1M to the account of the lawyers of the bank, held in the same financial institution, on 1^st October 2020, seven days before the official date of auction.

It is important to note that Sudhir knew him and company were unlawfully getting into a deal that could boomerang, and hence the reason he wrote asking for a guarantee that his upfront payment would be refunded in case the property was sold to a different person or entity.

A total of USD700000 out of that money was paid to one Ronald Luwangula who we heavily suspect was acting as a proxy as far as the purchase of Kamya’s other property, Afrique Suites Hotel in Mutungo was concerned. Then part of the balance was paid out as costs for the recovery of Simbamannyo itself, which goes to prove that the bank kick-started the auction process way before the actual date.

After paying for the building, Sudhir fast-tracked the transfer from the names of Simbamannyo Estates Limited into those of Meera Investments limited which intriguingly happened in merely two hours. A caveat was then placed on the building within a space of three minutes after the said transfer that happened on October 8^th 2020, the hitherto supposed auction date!

Little wonder then that caveats which the owner, Eng. Kamya had lodged much earlier anticipating the aforementioned foul play, ended up being removed and replaced by caveats lodged by Meera Investments Limited, in a space of minutes. But Kamya has vowed not to take it lying back. He labors to fight on vide a plaint filed with the Commercial Division of the High Court on 2^nd August 2021.

Among his prayers before Court, Kamya contends that Equity Bank’s act of selling and disposing of his properties was, in circumstances, a violation of his rights to redeem the mortgages issued under the questioned credit facility of November 2017. He further avows that the USD1M paid by Sudhir to the Bank in a bid to facilitate the impugned sale of his properties before the already challenged auction date, was not only fraudulent but an illegal venture.

Citing that the price of USD5M Sudhir paid for his property was just peanuts compared to the market value currently standing at USD12M, Kamya wants Court to institute an independent survey and evaluation unit to review the same. He also believes that Equity Bank flouted the law via breach of Bank of Uganda Financial Consumer Protection Guidelines 2011, which he contends that had it been applied, the arguably smelly transaction could have faced a stillbirth… Watch this space…

Close to a fortnight ago, The Investigator revealed that Kasekende had resolved to throw in the towel. This report was based on exclusive information that the appointing authority had not only shown little or no interest in renewing his term, but the man himself had also kowtowed to family pressure to save their image from negative public references.

We have it on authoritative note that in a family meeting at his home in December, Kasekende narrated how stressed he had become and ‘apologized’ to them for casting their image in Bank of Uganda epics. “And therefore, from January 13^th 2020, you should find me at Buloba and not Kololo,” a family source had quoted Kasekende as having announced his move.

“From today, he’s staying in Buloba,” offered our family source this afternoon adding that Kasekende, his wife Edith and or close family members would only shift their basics since the house was wholly furnished by BOU. “They moved out with only their personal effects. The house is among the items handed over to the Governor,” revealed the source.

Kasekende is leaving the Central Bank a haunted man. So haunted he even gave up on his would-be alternative retirement home in the palatial Lubowa estates along Entebbe road. Even when he had explained to the family that he bought the house from African Development Bank terminal benefits, the same is unexplainable to public members who believe, its BOU exploits that fished it in.

A senior economist who has worked in key positions of the banking sector, Louis A. Kasekende, 61, was named Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda on January 18^th 2010. But this was a bounce back as he had served in the same capacity from 1999 to 2002. His handover today marks the end of a decade plus era at the national financial reservoir.

Kasekende told family that he was retiring into farming. “He trusts his persona is heavily soiled and would want a total rebrand of himself as a farmer,” offered our source. Since time immemorial, Bank of Uganda affairs were matters for only economists, bankers and money moguls. However, this is no longer the case as even the most ordinary Ugandan can now find the institution at fault.

This is when they (BOU) questionably started closing indigenous banks, accusing them of poor management. However, it’s until when they closed Crane Bank which they had for years, credited before the public as the best bank. Public members’ and hitherto relaxed journalists’ curiosity made them follow to the letter, all the investigations in this ‘anomaly.’

The investigations revealed a lot of mess especially in the administration and monitoring departments. At one time, the aging and ailing Governor, Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile himself acted as the whistle blower in a case where, alleged extra billions of money was printed and transported into the country fraudulently. The Investigator has a clue on Kasekende’s possible replacement… Watch this space.