POLICE | BANK FRAUD | YAHAMNNES

KAMPALA - In a fresh case of suspected fraud involving banks, the Police are investigating circumstances under which close to sh1b was allegedly withdrawn after official banking hours from an ABSA bank account without the holder’s consent. 

The Police have reportedly lined a number of ABSA Bank staff for questioning on how $267,500 (about sh974m) left Abraham Yahamnnes account in a single transaction. 

Yahamnnes is a British citizen of Eritrean origin and has businesses in Uganda. 

The probe is expected to lift the lid on a suspected racket involving fraudsters and some unscrupulous bank staff. 

Yahamnnes said he got to know of the transaction on his account when he received a text message from ABSA Bank in March this year.

Preliminary investigations indicate that the transaction was effected and part of the money was sent to the bank’s branch in Masaka, from where it was reportedly withdrawn. 

The other part of the money was allegedly withdrawn from ABSA main branch in Kampala. 

“All transactions were effected after 6:00pm, yet the official banking time ends at 4:00pm. We want them to also explain this,” a detective privy to the investigations said. 

The case was first reported at the Central Police Station in Kampala, but was later transferred to the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) headquarters in Kibuli.

Bank fraud not new 

While at the helm of the Police, Gen. Kale Kayihura severally warned that there was a new wave of crime where bank employees colluded with criminal gangs to steal money of clients with huge sums in their accounts.

At the time, several businessmen had their money withdrawn, including an Eritrean national, Daniel Michael Weldu, who was murdered before his account in Stanbic Bank was swept clean. 

In May last year, the High Court in Kampala sentenced three people to 50 years, including a Uganda People’s Defence Forces captain, after they were convicted of masterminding the kidnap and murder of the Eritrean businessman. 

Weldu, who was a resident of Muyenga and owned businesses in Uganda and South Sudan, was abducted from Kololo, a Kampala suburb on October 27, 2016, and his body was later found burnt at the Uganda-Kenya border in Busia. 

Justice Flavia Anglin Ssennoga convicted Capt. Bumali Mangeni together with two civilians; Benon Duncan Lumu and Andrew Kisitu. 

This happened as the Police was struggling to crack the Stanbic Bank fraud in which sh3.5b was stolen from a dead Ethiopian national’s account. 

Another $65,000 (about sh236m) scam emerged in March 2017, where the money was withdrawn from Michael Gebremariam Teklegzi’s other account in Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) in Kampala. 

According to the Police, Teklegzi operated two bank accounts in Stanbic Bank and KCB, before he died at Kawolo Hospital in 2013. 

Teklegzi also had a dollar account with Stanbic Bank which had $1m (sh3.5b). 

The Police are investigating reports that this money was also stolen by fraudsters reportedly in collusion with some bank managers. 

A senior bank manager, Joseph Ssempijja, was arrested in connection with the fraud, while another staff, Juliet Nambatya, who was attached to the bank’s Forest Mall branch, has since gone missing. 

In 2017, a former Equity Bank operations manager, David Serwamba, was convicted for embezzling over sh4b from the bank. 

The Anti-Corruption Court Judge, Margaret Tibulya, ruled that there was sufficient evidence to prove that Serwamba deliberately and illicitly channelled the money in question to fraudsters from the bank. 

He was convicted together with his brother Isaac Serwamba, Reagan Okoth, Moses Kalungi, Mubarak Shafik, a businessman and Mathew Keeya.

ABSA Bank responds 

For two weeks, Robinah Mukasa, the ABSA Uganda head of communications and citizenship, has not responded to our request for the bank’s comment. 

“Please write to me an email and I will revert in 30 minutes. I am running late for a meeting,” Mukasa said when contacted by New Vision. 

When a follow up was made a week later, Mukasa said she had referred the matter to her superiors and that she was waiting for their response before she could comment.