But, for a long time now, the all-important office has been earning infamy for caressing mafias! Excuse the pun!

The no-nonsense Justice John Bosco Katutsi took offence regarding the manner in which the DPP is romancing the Mafios. The judge in no uncertain terms roundly condemned the DPP’s office for taking mukene(small time criminals) to court for prosecution while sparing the Nile perch (Big time mafias).

“Am fed up with trying mukene. You should start bringing the Nile perch as well”, Katutsi angrily remarked in the past. He was convicting some small guys who had stolen government funds. These are not nice compliments by all means. They mirror an office which is degenerating. Strikingly, the DPP has also been chided for taking over private cases against big guys before controversially dropping them.

Our own CEO, Stanley Ndawula is crying foul currently. This, after the current DPP, Jane Francis Abodo secretly closed a criminal case he had filed against businessman Sudhir Ruparelia, over the letters alleged hacking into his social media accounts.

This website ran the disturbing story of the DPP’s secret discontinuation of the case. This is after Ndawula had petitioned the DPP over her choice to drop Sudhir off the chargesheet and instead sanctioned his agents Ashberg Katto and Ussa Ssegawa to the dock. Ndawula suspects money changed hands before the DPP closed the matter because he had collected overwhelming evidence to nail Sudhir.

According to Ndawula, Sudhir possibly threw some money at the DPP herself or her people who closed the file quietly hoping he was going to take it lying down.

He justifies his suspicion by pointing out the fact that Sudhir in the past wired a big bribe to the account of the former ISO director, Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi in order to kill a case. Ndawula is referring to the money laundering scandal which saw Sudhir doing some good months at the University of Understanding in Luzira.

Sudhir is said to have wired the money into Muhwezi’s wife account then held at the now defunct Nile Bank. The complainant, Stanley Ndawula learned of the closure of his case from the police investigating officers, days after the fact.

Abodo, after closing the file, went completely mute. She didn’t have the courtesy of, by the way, informing Ndawula’s lawyers who had kept asking her about the progress of the investigation let alone the complainant himself.

Ndawula was quoted in the story warning of an elephant currently roaming freely inside the temple of justice. He vowed to expose the elephant for the general good because, according to him, it is posing a grave danger to fairness and justice as it is known in the realm of rule of law.

Ndawula surprisingly mentions the DPP as the elephant he is talking about. He reasons since the DPP has chosen to neglect her duty, he has no choice, but to put the evidence in the file involving Sudhir to the court of public opinion. 

Just don’t think yet that Ndawula is turning personal and emotional because Abodo closed his case. Not at all. The veteran investigative journalist wouldn’t be the first and last person to complain about the DPP’s modus operandi.

The president, foreign diplomats, judges, fellow lawyers, religious leaders, politicians and majority of Ugandans have been complaining throughout about the injustice in the DPP’s office. So much so that majority of Ugandans have lost confidence in the sincerity of the DPP in as far as fighting crime is concerned.

If the DPP is not joining criminal cases filed by private individuals with a view of dropping them, delaying hearing of cases and disappearing case files, the office holders and her charges are busy cutting deals with criminals to secretly help to drop cases against them.

Don’t you remember the latest one caught red handed demanding for the UGX1.5m bribe to kill a defilement case!

The DPP has also been cited in sanctioning bogus criminal cases. Justice Katutsi is still the man who shocked the world when he dismissed the DPP’s office as a clearing house for bogus cases. Katutsi was dismissing Kyakuwa’s rape charges against Dr. Warren Kiiza Kifeefe Besigye. 

The good Judge asserted the charges had been manufactured in State House and cleared by the DPP to block Dr. Besigye from running for the biggest office in the land.

You can take Male Mabirizi Kiwanuka for a joker, if you want, when he says the DPP takes over criminal cases from private prosecutors with a hidden motive of dropping them. But the DPP has been taking over such many cases and doing what Mabirizi accuses the chief prosecutor of doing.

Much as the DPP takes over private cases promising to prosecute them, the principal public prosecutor has been dropping them all without even rendering justification for doing so.

The DPP to that extent therefore appears to be the law and the law herself, thanks to the Constitution which gives her such leverage that she often abuses, knowing she can’t be questioned by anyone. Watch this space… 

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…   

Captured Wednesday last week by Ndawula`s private investigators around Kawempe, Ussa Ssegawa is the latest and hitherto most needed suspect. Most needed because he represented the prime suspect, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia in entirerty. Whereas it was highly expected he would do whatever in his reach to protect his master, time wasn`t on his side.

This stance, because he was denied the much-wanted chance to talk to his master when the detective announced to him, it was time for recording his statement. As the head of the hacking racket, it was prudent for him to talk to the main man and agree on what to tell or not to tell police.

Left with no alternative, Ussa gave in and wrote an unaltered statement, telling it the way it was, more especially after being informed that actually, all his accomplices had long recorded theirs. We chanced a lengthy glance at his statement currently lying at the Resident State Attorney`s desk at Buganda Road Court, pending sanctioning.

The Statement*

With slightly edited patches, we hereby reproduce the statement via which, Ussa Ssegawa spilled the beans to the dismay of his master Sudhir Ruparelia, also the Federa Republic of Nepal Consul to Uganda.                

“I Ussa Ssegawa, a male adult aged 32 years, Muganda by tribe, working with Sanyu fm as a journalist, a resident of Kawempe, Ssebaggala zone, Kawempe Division in Kampala District STATES that the above particulars and address are mine, true and correct.

…and wish to say that I have been an employee at Sanyu FM for now a period of three years and it’s owned by a one Rajiv Ruparelia. I know of a person known as Ashburg Kato also known as Katto Ashraf and have known him for a period of two years and we communicate both on mobile network and other social media platforms like WhatsApp. 

I also know one Alfred, who I got to know through Katto Ashraf aka Ashburg and its recent and do not know him much, however we do communicate. I also know Stanley Ndawula and have known him as a journalist for so long but we do not have much in common but he is well known to me. It was in early September 2021 when I was contacted by Katto Ashraf aka Ashburg Katto.

This was in regard to the Facebook posts that were on Stanley Ndawula’s Facebook page and these were stating that “In Sudhir’s Death Closet: The tale of how Nepal consul has evolved from table salt smuggler to a super crime guru.” Katto was informing me of how he can be able to remove the post off Ndawula Stanley’s Facebook page and others on the Investigator page, an online news site that is also owned by Ndawula Stanley. 

I then asked him how possible he was able to hack this account of Stanley and remove this content and he confirmed to me thrice that he could do it and I gave him a go ahead. We then made an arrangement to meet and find a solution to remove these contents.

The reason I was doing this was that I wanted to protected the image of Ruparelia group and my bosses who included Rajiv Ruparelia and Sudhir Ruparelia as these contents were not appeasing to us and the whole company management, so this was a way we found out that could counter plan it. 

We on the first time met at Masharique restaurant in Bunga and in this meeting it was me, Katto Ashraf and Alfred. In this meeting we agreed that they should hack and put down the Facebook, Twitter and the Investigator site accounts and ensure that all the content is erased or deleted.

In all this, I was representing the Ruparelia group but in particular, it was Sudhir Ruparelia who had given me instructions to meet these people and chat a way out to hack Stanley Ndawula’s accounts as indicated. And in the same meeting, we agreed on how we were to facilitate them to do this and we agreed a fee of UGX10,000,000 but with initial payment of UGX.5,000,000 which he received the next day at Bukoto. 

I originally knew Katto Ashraf but I got to know Alfred when we met in the meeting at Masharique restaurant in Bunga. There after the first meeting, indeed as agreed, the Facebook page of Ndawula Stanley was hacked and removed but however I do not know how the nudes of a lady got to his pages but all I know is that the page was hacked and removed by the team I had agreed with as instructed by Sudhir Ruparelia. 

And equally, the Investigator site was hacked by the same team of Katto and Alfred and this particular meeting was in my vehicle and here we agreed on what they expected from me and what I expected from them, which is deleting the content in Ndawula Stanley’s Facebook account, Twitter and the Investigator site (website).

While in this meeting, I called Dr Sudhir using my personal phone to inform him that I had met these guys and we had agreed on deleting this content as he had instructed me to do. We then left and then met the third time it was me and Katto Ashraf and at that time Alfred was at Yaya restaurant, the business of Ndawula Stanley and at this time, Alfred was intending to obtain information from Ndawula’s phones that was going to aid them in the hacking of Ndawula’s accounts and Investigator website. 

I and Katto drove and got closer to Yaya restaurant in Kisasi and waited for Alfred and I later parted with them and left. Some of the communication between me and Katto was on WhatsApp and basically was about hacking and deleting the Facebook accounts, Twitter account and website of the investigator and Stanley Ndawula, but whenever Katto would be off WhatsApp, I would engage Alfred on WhatsApp to have the matter progress as I was accountable to Sudhir Ruparelia to have the job done. 

I was communicating with Katto on 078…07 both mobile network and WhatsApp as well as Alfred on 0759…11, +44 75…77, and 0784…99 and I would also contact my boss Sudhir Ruparelia on 0752…66 and 0772…66 and I was using my personal number stated above which is fully registered in my names “Ussa Segawa.” That’s all I can state for now. Statement read through by myself, found it true and correct and here I sign it……. xxx

Immediately after the central bank informed the Supreme Court it was withdrawing the case, Sudhir went bonkers, sending out messages to his army of fans, hackers and sundry, proclaiming how he had floored Bank of Uganda and how he was now going to collect billions in legal costs!

So thrilled the man got that he even sent out a message of triumph to this inspective website he had just days before, alas, paid hackers to try to put out of action! Much as we unmistakably knew he was rejoicing imprudently, we left him to his folly, intending not to spoil his party, and so, we returned the congratulatory message.

As people of good reason looked on in awe, Sudhir pressed on by his son, Rajiv Ruparelia, now joined by his jesters, went on and on churning out message after message, congratulating themselves while rebuking the central bank for its ‘ignorance’ of the law!

But what was it that Sudhir and his jesters were celebrating really? Was it the coup of evil over justice? Was it because he robbed Crane Bank to death and then innocent Ugandans were going to pay him hundreds of billions in costs? What was it really Sudhir and his sidekicks were jubilating about?

Well, Sudhir’s merrymakings were not only ill-formed and hasty, but also out rightly callous. Prudent people know the simple fact that a withdrawal cannot stop a party doing so from bringing up the matter again after making some improvements here and there.

And here we are, basing on what we have gathered, revealing how the central bank has designed a way of restoring the lawsuit, after replacing Crane bank in receivership with a capitalized Crane Bank, hence curing the blunder it had committed by filing the case in the names of a factually dead financial institution.

To put it simple for the benefit of Sudhir’s jesters, a retreat in the war zone is no good justification for the fighting outfit with a momentary upper hand to throw guns away and go on partying while drinking booze, since the retreating force can easily emerge and cause havoc against the jubilating tipsy forces.

Sudhir must thank Covid 19, he was going to blow money throwing beer binges for no good reason as we have ably illustrated above. There is no justification under the sun for this lawsuit to be thrown out of court, basing on insignificant excuses in light of the fact that Sudhir confessed in writing to have extracted the billions the central bank wants paid back, refunded USD8m, and staked buildings to cover for the balance.

The acknowledgement of guilt on part of Sudhir must be tested by court to establish its legal worth or lack of it, together with the evidence and exhibits from all sides to the conflict, before court can finally weigh all that and finally come up with a just, fair and convincing decision.

May the hearing start ASAP. And may justice conquer evil in this case ultimately. Finally, it’s the Preliminary Objection (PO) that went up to the Supreme Court, from where, the appellant withdrew it upon realizing that a dead CBL couldn’t sue but a capitalized one. Remember we (Tax Payers) capitalized CBL after the self-confessed robber cleaned it of capital! Though the Investigator is still on and off due to hackers; interference, this and other stories are and will always be safely up here. Watch this space…      

President Museveni dived in after we also raised questions about the transaction which saw one Ronald Luwangula, a Supreme Court Clerk, allegedly buying the 3-Star Afrique Suites Hotel, while property magnate, Sudhir Ruparelia took Simbamannyo complex, a multi-billion property behind Central Police Station Kampala, in a mock auction staged by the Equity bank Uganda.

The two properties belonged to draughtsman Peter Kamya before they changed hands to the new ‘owners’ in a manner that is shrouded in mystery. Kamya is currently fighting in court to overturn the auction because there was an ongoing court case challenging the legality of the loans themselves, when the bank sold off the securities anyway.  

For instance, while the auction was supposed to take place on October 8^th 2020, Equity started receiving money from Sudhir a week before the exercise. We have evidence of Sudhir wiring a total of USD1M on October 1^st 2020 to the bank lawyers after which, the latter assured him their client would not sell Simbamannyo to anyone apart from him.

A total of USD700, 000 from Sudhir’s deposit was wired into Luwangula’s Account which we believe, was a bribe to help act as a proxy for the businessman as far as buying the hotel is concerned. A company, Luwaluwa Investments Limited, which was presented as dealing in online trading but whose actual certificate of registration shows it is a general trading company, later purportedly bought the hotel through Luwangula.

Luwangula is said to have bought the hotel using a loan he allegedly picked from the bank which was auctioning the property and using the hotel itself as the security! Tellingly, the land office not only removed caveats from the two properties which the owner had launched a month earlier on the same day of the auction, but also proceeded to hurriedly transfer them to the new owners before placing new caveats on them. 

Ever since we broke the controversial deal seeking to use it as a launching pad in our efforts to uncover many such deals under which Sudhir has ended up snapping prime properties in town, and without putting out info to the contrary, the wealthy businessman, known for using crude methods to silence the truth, has launched a vicious hacking campaign against this website, its staffers and associates. 

But many Ugandans welcomed our truth-telling and truth-seeking campaign. One person who saluted our campaign is none other than the President. Inspired by our bold campaign to fight fraudulent transactions, the President has now joined the fray by summoning Luwangula for quizzing, our informers at State House reveal.

The President, according to our sources, seeks to understand how and from where the junior court officer obtained the colossal sums of money which he allegedly used to pay for the hotel.

Upon receiving his guest for the first time in his life, our informers reveal, President Yoweri Museveni humorously probed, “Muzzukulu, teach me, when did you make the kind of money you used to pay for such a luxury hotel?” 

As the young man figured out how to respond, our informers continue, the president followed up on the question, “Forgive me young man, you see Muzzukulu, even me your Jajja doesn’t possess the kind of money you spent on buying that hotel”.

As Luwangula quavered, our informers add, the President told everyone around to leave possibly to give comfort to his guest to tell all he knows about these matters. We are working relentlessly to obtain details of this meet-up and we shall tell it all as soon as we finally obtain it. 

This is not the first time for the President to intervene in such fraudulent deals by Sudhir. We have reported already how he helped to throw Sudhir out of a property at Plot 8 Nakasero after Sudhir used what is believed to be a Title produced at Nasser Road to deprive Gulam Hussein, an Asian living in Canada, of the same. While the land office had registered Sudhir on the property using the disputed Title, the President directed the land office to undo the fraudulent registration and the businessman was deregistered thus.

Gulam Hussein, discovered his property had changed hands after selling the same to the immediate outgoing Attorney General William Byaruhanga and his business associate, Charlie Lubega. The owner had told his lawyers to transfer the property to the new owners when he discovered the fraud. Hussein immediately reported to the President who didn’t waste time throwing Sudhir out of the property. Museveni tasked then Police Chief, Gen Kale Kayihura to oversee the eviction of Sudhir.

Sudhir had rejected calls by the land office to pass on his Title for cancellation and indeed resorted to courts of law, but the President prevailed. A judge in town, Andrew Bashaija has since, and controversially so, upheld Sudhir’s Title which he did not produce in court moreover. 

Bashaija was later removed as head of the land division of the High Court. Hussein appealed and Sudhir has never gained re-entry into the property as per the presidential directives. In an interesting twist of events, the first person, Abdu Matovu, to allegedly own the property, ended up disappearing to this date. 

He pulled up the disappearance stunt immediately after the matter had reached the President. Analysts have it that someone sponsored the disappearance because he knew a lot of things which he was going to easily spill.

That missing person had allegedly sold and transferred the property to Davis Kakwenzire at USD550, 000, a renowned land grabber, who the President one time ordered to be arrested on a visit to Nateete to hear tales of land grabbing. 

Upon securing registration, Kakwenzire used the property to seek a loan from Crane Bank, owned by Sudhir. Shortly after, he lost interest in the same and looked for brokers to find him a buyer. He got Godfrey Kirumira, a renowned broker for Sudhir who took him to his boss and concluded the deal, paying USD850, 000 for the property. 

For close to a fortnight now, the businessman and his hacking squad have labored to silence the publication by targeting its website and personal pages of journalists. They started with those of the CEO Stanley Ndawula who, has since reported the matter with police under Ref. Number GEF 877/2021 of Kibuli CID Headquarters, with Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia as the prime suspect.

The hackers temporarily succeeded in trying to subdue the site by creating an artificial heavy traffic onto the website which makes it impossible for readers to access the same. When our technicians initially solved that problem, the tycoon’s hackers resorted to entering into the personal accounts of staff members.

Their strategy was to use carefully scripted and dangerous messages to send to highly connected government personalities in a ploy to move them to cause arrests at the mighty investigative publication.

One of such messages allegedly indicated that we had a source who was in possession of nude pictures of a top brass military officer, putting their simplest commonsense at stake by forgetting to erase the section where the said source asks if the said pictures will be required by us.

On realizing that the said accusation had no impact on both the site and the pin-pointed parties, they resorted to distorted Direct Messages (MDs) of journalists and staff in a bid to turn them against each other. But to put the investors’ money to waste, the hackers forgot to at least embark on a fact finding mission since most of the said staff had since moved on and are minding other businesses away from the Investigator.

As if to prove that their messages had reached their intended targets, the hackers took the easiest route of appeasing their not so IT savvy investor by making calls to staff and using WhatsApp messages via a shady number whose particulars withheld for now.

The incredible moron went into mental hibernation by even peening thus; “do you even know how I hacked you,” to one of our staffers’ number not knowing that he had blown his cover and provided evidence that he had been behind the hacking project and thus, rendering us innocent and free to pursue our desired media practice . 

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     

Since he started the cold war against the mighty Investigator supposedly for publishing the story of how he fraudulently bought Simbamannyo House from Equity Bank, several people have urged us to dig deep into Sudhir’s arrest at the airport 30 years ago. Though some people in their forties have an illusionary memory of the arrest, none knows of the particulars.

Trust money, not even in renowned archives centers in Kampala we could find this record. Even search engines know about only what Sudhir himself want them to know of him. Well, we are here to resurrect the three decade old story which, was first published in the New Vision of Saturday November 9^th 1991 under the headline; “Customs impound forex in Entebbe.”

Reported by Ndyakira Amooti, the story is hereby reproduced with, but light edits: “Forex worth 194 million shillings was intercepted by customs officials at Entebbe Airport last weekend. According to reliable sources in the Ministry of Finance, the forex in personal checks and Bank drafts was contained in a DHL parcel that had been declared as documents.

The parcel was about to be delivered to a waiting Kenya Airways plane. The impounded forex checks and bank drafts amounting to USD81201.50, British Pounds 57101 and Germany DM47500, an equivalent of UGX194M. The Director General of Customers Prof. Samuel Karugire confirmed the seizure of the checks in question and said they were still investigating the matter.

The sources said last Saturday, when the airport customs made an impromptu check of the DHL parcel about to go in the Kenya Airways plane, they discovered the parcel contained various personal checks and bank drafts without authorization documents. The declaration form on the envelope stated that there were documents inside. On the parcel, it was indicated that the sender was Patrick B. of P.O Box 55047, Kampala.  

The DHL parcel in question was being sent to a company in the United Kingdom by the names of Stop-n-Go on the address 199, Arundel Street, Portsmouth. The sources which preferred anonymity, said the impounded DHL parcel contained personal checks sold to Crane Forex Bureau amounting to USD12001, British Pounds 7091 and Germany DM3,000.

Also found were Bank Drafts issued by Barclays Bank in Kampala to various persons and companies. The drafts amounted to USD54500, another amount of British Pound 50000 in bank drafts had been issued by the Standard Chartered Bank in Kampala.

The parcel further contained USD11, 100 in the Bank Drafts issued by Kampala based Nile Bank. There was another DM34500 and USD3500 in checks belonging to a Company that was unidentified. By Thursday evening, no one had turned up at Entebbe Customs to claim the impounded checks.

However, yesterday afternoon, sources from the customs said Patrick Baguma of Club Tropicana 1-Ten had written to the department claiming the intercepted forex. The Reporter went to DHL offices in Kampala twice yesterday for a comment on the matter but was told that a one Apollo Spencer who would make a comment was not in office. This is the second incident in which forex have been intercepted at Entebbe Airport in less than 20 days.

On October 13^th, an Indian, one Rajendra Kumar Raichura, who was an employee of Kobil Limited at the time of the closed Orient Forex Bureau, was intercepted trying to smuggle out of the country, more than USD1M. Raichura and the Directors, Karia Morjaria and Ketan Morjaria have since been deported. The summary order to deport them was castigated by President Museveni”… End

Documents before our crime desk indicate how Sudhir was eventually identified as the prime suspect. Upon this revelation, the now tycoon and honorary Doctor spent some leisure moments in months, at the Luzira based University of Understanding. But trust his courage, he even unsuccessfully tried to bribe his way out of the saga, through then ISO Boss Brig. Jim Muhwezi. But that was a time when bribes were a no-mention… Watch this space…        

Later in the evening, Ndawula released a video, distancing self from the trending sickening news. He explained how his introductory investigations had gathered that his Twitter Account had been hacked into, had all particulars and settings changed before the hackers used it to circulate the young lady’s pictures attached to tens of different offensive stories.

That his Facebook and Gmail accounts had been hacked into first last Monday, was becoming an old story by Tuesday. Following the same, social media zealots code-named it a ‘SR vs. SN Battle. “This (Tuesday incident) is not the first. A lot have been circulating about me and to those in the know, they can actually guess who is behind it,” Ndawula said, seeming unbothered. However, speaking to this writer yesterday, he said his tormentors had over crossed the boundaries.

“Circumstantial evidence clearly indicate that it’s Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia’s project to character-assassinate me. He’s done it before to my friend Giles Muhame, the Chimp Reports boss, BOU officials and lawyers as well as several individuals he has fallen out with… so I am not exceptional,” Ndawula said, adding that all the allegations piled onto his person since hackers attacked him, was essentially started by Dr. Sudhir via his WhatsApp public Broadcast on August 11^th 2021.

To this effect, the no-nonsense two-decade long crime investigative journalist did not stop at lamentations but registered the same with Uganda Police Force at Kibuli based CID, imploring them to investigate the matter, but giving in Sudhir as his prime suspect. “We received the complaint and the Director is yet to assign it to the respective department,” Charles Twine, the CID Publicist confirmed last night.

“On this forum, he made several other allegations against my person, some of which, as attached hereto…From that day and moment, people from different social media networks and accounts started replicating and circulating the same allegations against me,” wrote Ndawula in his letter to Crime Investigations Director, AIGP Grace Akullo. Below is the letter in full:                         

“Ndawula Stanley

P.O Box 3093, Kampala

September 7^th 2021

0772621522, 0752799909

THE Director CID

Uganda Police Force

Kampala, Uganda

Dear Madam

RE: REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATIONS INTO ILLEGAL ACCESS/HACKING OF MY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS AND COMMISSION OF CRIMINAL LIBEL AND OFFENSIVE COMMUNICATION AGAINST MY PERSON, BUSINESSES AND OTHER PEOPLE

My name is Stanley Ndawula, a 50yr Ugandan resident of Kisaasi, Kasaana village, Kyanja Parish, Nakawa Division in Kampala District. I’m the CEO of The Investigator Publications (U) Limited, a Company running a news website via www.theinvestigatornews.com. I am also the Chairman of GIA Investments (U) Limited, a mother company to Yaya Xtra Residence (U) Limited which runs an organic foods restaurant in Kisaasi along Kulambiro ring road.

The Introduction 

On August 11^th 2021, a post titled: ‘Coming up soon: Simbamannyo building has been in sponsored news for some time until it slipped out of the owner’s hands! What do you think happened?” Shortly after, an acquaintance called Ussa called me with a request purportedly from Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia and his son Rajiv, to not only pull down the post on The Investigator Facebook page but also stop the story following it. He suggested to meet me but I told him I had no control over his boss’ request. I offered that the story was sourced from a Court Case whose Plaintiff’s lawyer is also The Investigator Company Secretary who, is well known to Dr. Sudhir himself. Ussa seemed to understand and closed the chapter.

On August 18^th 2021, the story titled ‘An Auction that never was: ‘Details how Dr. Sudhir Bought Simbamannyo Seven days before the due date for Public sale,’ was published and the same posted on the official Investigator Facebook page the following day August 19^th 2021. On that very day, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia went on social media, specifically via his WhatsApp broadcast handle and posted a photo of me and Mr. Friday Kagoro Roberts of Muwema and Co. Advocates, with a caption thus; “I know one of this Gentlemen in Red Shirt who is an extortion And Blackmailer. Any one knows the second Gentlemen??”. He further posted the same in a WhatsApp group called 400 Cups to which I belong. On this forum, he made several other allegations against my person, some of which, as attached hereto.

From that day and moment, people from different social media networks and accounts started replicating and circulating the same allegations against me. On Sunday 29^th 2021, I received a text message purportedly from my daughter and on clicking it, my phone went out. Shortly, I realized I couldn’t access my Facebook and Gmail accounts. From then, the hackers attacked all my social media accounts and also attempted and still trying to hack into The Investigator Accounts both social and mainstream (website) forums.

Yesterday 7^th September 2021, they hacked into my Twitter and posted nudes of a one Aisha Mutesi which went viral. They also created (cloned) the Investigator Website and posted the nudes before screen-shooting and circulating them as if they are from the main Investigator website. I received insults from all over, including on my phone both via calls and WhatsApp. In Aisha’s incident, they impersonated me and asked for money from her or they release her nudes. I managed to talk to her and she informed me that after 10 minutes, before she could even respond to their financial demands, they released the nudes. This means they were dying to credit their claims and or those of the mastermind that I am actually an extortionist.

Distressingly, they tag the President of the Republic of Uganda and other important people including top police officers in all their malicious messages. To my detriment, one such officers, AIGP Assan Kasingye wholeheartedly believed them and even retweeted about the same, hence unknowingly driving it further as a true account of what is being maligned against me!       

Whereas these actions prompted by Dr. Sudhir and or his agents have grossly tortured me psychologically, they have also interfered my privacy and exposed my life to danger. The purpose of this letter is therefore to request you through your Cyber Crime department to instigate a thorough investigation and not only bring the culprits to book but have them answerable for their deeds.”