By CHARLES MWANIKI, cmwaniki@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- The Capital Markets Fraud Investigation Unit has issued warrants of arrest for nine suspects, accused of colluding with bank officials to cash investors’ cheques.
- The fraudsters obtained millions of shillings by using fake names similar to those of investors owed Safaricom IPO refunds.
Police are on the trail of nine fraudsters suspected of having pocketed millions of shillings by cashing out Safaricom IPO refund cheques belonging to investors through forgery of identity.
The Capital Markets Fraud Investigation Unit,
which works closely with the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has issued
warrants of arrest for nine suspects, accused of colluding with bank
officials to cash investors’ cheques.
Three of the charge sheets seen by the Business Daily
indicate that the fraudsters obtained millions of shillings by using
fake names similar to those of investors owed Safaricom initial public
offering (IPO) refunds.
According to the charge sheets, Patricia Wanjiku
Mwaura and Ronald Asonga Khejeri separately stole Safaricom IPO refund
cheques worth Sh780,000 and Sh551,000 respectively in 2008 at Standard
Investment Bank.
Ms Mwaura is alleged to have used an alias of Jane
Patricia Mwaura, while Mr Khejeri went with an alias of Evanson Kimemia
Nderu, in addition to forging an identity card in that name.
“Patricia Wanjiku Mwaura alias Jane Patricia
Mwaura…on or about September 3, 2008 at Standard Investment Bank along
Kenyatta Avenue…stole a Safaricom refund cheque of face value Sh780,000
property of Citi Bank,” reads the charge sheet of one of the wanted
people.
Another suspect is Abraham Kiprotich Langat alias
Yussuf Agrippa, who has three pending criminal cases at the Kericho,
Milimani and Makadara law courts on 10 counts of forgery of share
deposit forms.
The forms are normally used when converting (immobilising) share certificates into electronic accounts.
Six other suspects have been listed as “unknown”
in a public notice published Tuesday by the anti-fraud unit and the CMA,
having used fake identification documents while carrying out the fraud.
The warrants mark the latest effort to address the issue of theft of investors’ refunds which stained the 2008 Safaricom IPO.
CMA has in the past five years been filing charges
against people suspected of theft of Safaricom IPO refunds, some of
whom are former employees of stockbrokerage firms.
The Safaricom IPO which was seeking to raise about
Sh51 billion attracted more applications than targeted, leaving
stockbrokers to process a huge numbers of refund cheques.
The limited capacity to handle the refunds opened the way for fraudsters to move in and take advantage of the ensuing confusion.
About 800,000 investors applied for the 10 billion
Safaricom shares on sale during the IPO, many of them local retail
investors.
Fraudsters took advantage of the sheer volumes of
cheques on issue and colluded with stockbrokers and bank staff to access
and cash stolen cheques.
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