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…   

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…  

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.  

Today, we come with updates on the same where, Sudhir was ably identified as the owner and arrested before Bank of Uganda closed his Crane Forex Bureau located on Plot 20, Kampala Road. That his defunct Crane Bank was closed and operational license canceled, was not a new thing to Sudhir, for the same happened to his Crane Forex Bureau 30 years ago over fraud.

Authored by Yunusu Abbey, today’s follow-up story is extracted from The New Vision of Friday November 15^th 1991 under the headline; ‘Crane Forex Bureau chief under arrest.’ Sudhir’s unbecoming character did not only led to his arrest but also, to the Central Bank tightening the grip on the regulations governing forex. Below is the unedited story as reported three decades ago.        

The Story

The owner of Crane Forex Bureau in Kampala Mr. Sudhir Ruparelia has been arrested and his Bureau’s operation license cancelled because of the alleged malpractices. Mr. Sudhir was arrested late on Tuesday and is being held at Kampala Central Police Station (CPS). His Bureau situated on Plot 20 Kampala Road was closed yesterday.

By late evening yesterday, charges against Sudhir had not yet been established. A press statement issued by Bank of Uganda last evening said the license of Crane Forex Bureau had been revoked as a result of a number of malpractices which came to light recently. But the statement did not elaborate on the malpractices which were discovered in the Bureau’s operations.

[Stringent measures]

[Bank of Uganda statement] only assured the public that the forex bureaus will continue to operate in the country and urged everyone to transact business with Bureaus which have valid licenses in accordance with the provisions of the forex exchange (forex bureau) order of 1991.

In light of the alleged malpractices, the Central Bank has asked the public to ensure forex bureaus issue for every sale or purchase of the foreign currency EXSR, EXER, EXPR/TC or FXER/TC, “as the case may be prescribed in the second schedule,” said the statement.

Each forex bureau shall quote its forex exchange buying and selling rate which shall be prominently displayed in the premises of the forex bureau. Every Bureau will also have to display on its premises a notice informing its customers as they are entitled to be issued with a receipt for any purchase or sale of the foreign currency they have made.

The statement further said that the forex bureau shall in its transactions only engage in spot transactions and in particular, no officer or staff member of such a forex bureau shall be allowed to deposit or accept Uganda Shillings with intent to obtain or supply the foreign currency equivalent to, either wholly or in part, at a further date, deposit or accept the foreign currency with the intent of supplying local currency equivalent of it either wholly or in part at a future date.”  

The New Vision story goes on to reproduce in full, the Central Bank statement with stringent measures guiding forex bureau business in the country. These are stories, via dishing out money to Ugandan journalists and media hoses, Sudhir wouldn’t want in the public arena. The information about him on Wikipedia too, doesn’t capture Sudhir’s dark closet that we are introducing in these series. Below is what Sudhir and, or his handlers fed the internet about his past and lineage. We however take some of them with a tweak of salt…

Sudhir according to Wikipedia

Born on 17^th January 1956, Sudhir Ruparelia is an investor of Indian origin. He is the chairman and majority shareholder in the companies of the Ruparelia Group. His investments are mainly in the areas of banking, insurance, education, broadcasting, real estate, floriculture, hotels, and resorts.

According to Forbes, in 2019, Ruparelia was ‘the wealthiest individual’ in Uganda, with an estimated net worth of US$1.2 billion. On 20 October 2016, the Bank of Uganda, which regulates all banks in Uganda, took control of Crane Bank, the largest subsidiary of the Ruparelia Group, due to a significant decline in capital and potential run on the bank.

Ruparelia was born in Kabatoro, Kaseese District in the Western Region of Uganda to an [Indian Dalit] Gujarati family. His great-grandfather reached Mombasa, Kenya in 1897 from India and set up a trading store there before coming to Uganda in 1903. His grandfather was born in Uganda in 1908 and his father in 1932.

Ruparelia has two sisters and one brother. He attended Bat Valley Primary School in Kampala, from P1 to P6, then Jinja Main Street Primary School in Jinja for P7 and Jinja Secondary School. In 1971, he joined Kololo Senior Secondary School. Ruparelia fled to the United Kingdom with his parents in 1972 at the age of 16, when the dictator

Ruparelia returned to Uganda in 1985, [allegedly] with USD25, 000 earned from several casual jobs including working in supermarkets, factories, and butcheries. Ruparelia started selling beer and spirits imported from Kenya. In 1989, beer importation was banned to encourage local brewing of alcohol and he realized he could not make beer.

But since his customers, who were mainly foreigners, paid him in foreign currency, he started Crane Forex Bureau. With his profits, Ruparelia ventured into other businesses, including forming Crane Bank in 1995. Later, he organized his businesses under the umbrella of the Ruparelia Group. In 2007, Ruparelia was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in business, by the Uganda Pentecostal University, in recognition of his contribution to Uganda’s economic growth.

Coming up nest: How Sudhir imported bribes and corruption into Country Uganda… Watch this space