Threeways Shipping Services the company whose two directors are accused of stealing sh9.5b from MTN received money on the company’s account, court has heard.

Mary Anne Akello, a banker from Standard Chartered Bank told the court that Threeways received big sums of money on account number 8704010724900.

Akello told the Anti-Corruption Court in Kololo, Kampala presided over by Justice Lawrence Gidudu that the signatories to the account are Oscar Baitwa and another person identified as GDB Baitwa.

Threeways directors Oscar Baitwa and Geoffrey Bihamaiso are on trial over charges of theft of (U$3,800, 000) about sh9.5b from MTN. They denied the charges.

Akello said the company received money from May 2009 to 2011. She presented a bank statement which was tendered in court as a prosecution exhibit against the accused.

The court allowed the bank statement as an exhibit after the defence lawyers Henry Kyalimpa and Yusuf Nuwamanya opposed the application to tender in the documents. Akello did not disclose the source of the money.

The bank statement was tendered in court by chief state attorney Abagail Kaboyo.

According to Akello, she provided the information upon receiving a court order from investigators to inspect the accounts belonging to the company.

Akello told the court that she retrieved the account opening documents as requested and gave them to the investigators.

Prosecution’s case

The prosecution said Baitwa and Bihamaiso between 2009 and 2012 in Kampala stole sh9.5b the property of MTN.

In the alternative charge, prosecution said the pair, with intent to defraud, obtained sh9.5b from MTN purportedly incurred for clearing and forwarding services for imported equipment.

In another count, the prosecution alleges that between 2009 and 2012 within Kampala, conspired with one another to steal sh9.5b from MTN Uganda.

Initially, the former employees of MTN ― accountant John Paul Basabose and Naphatali Were ― were charged before the same court but Basabose pleaded guilty through the plea bargain process.

Basabose refunded some money to MTN and the charges against him were subsequently dropped. Were passed on.

DPP cleared

DPP Jane Frances Abodo discontinued proceedings against two other Threeways employees ― chief finance officer Waiswa Kafuuko and logistics officer Faridah Senkumba.

The charges against Baitwa and Bihamaiso have been maintained.