City banker, Sudanese man held over fraud

Jul 22, 2009

AN IT expert for the Government of Southern Sudan and a city banker have been arrested for allegedly diverting about $320,000 (sh640m) meant for Sudanese students’ fees.

By Herbert Ssempogo

AN IT expert for the Government of Southern Sudan and a city banker have been arrested for allegedly diverting about $320,000 (sh640m) meant for Sudanese students’ fees.

The man and a female employee of Stanbic Bank were picked from a city suburb on Sunday night.

They were detained at the Rapid Response Unit head office in Kireka, Kampala.

According to sources, the man works in the Kampala liaison office.

“During the course of his work, he got to know that students’ tuition was to be dispatched through Nairobi. He could have colluded with someone in the education ministry,” a source told The New Vision yesterday.

The money would always be wired to Nairobi from where it would be sent to an account in Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) in Kampala, sources disclosed.

“When his contact alerted him that the money was in Nairobi, he informed the staff there to send the money to a Stanbic Bank account, instead of KCB,” the source stated.

The Stanbic Bank account, at the IPS branch on Parliament Avenue, said to be the man’s personal account, was credited mid this month.

The man allegedly withdrew $35,000 (about sh70m) and wired $190,000 (about sh380m) to an undisclosed bank.

Only $93,000 (about sh186m) was on the account when it was blocked last week.

In the ensuing spending spree, he allegedly ordered a vehicle worth over sh11m among other transactions, detectives disclosed.

“We are trying to ascertain where the other money is because it has not yet reached the intended account,” the source said, adding that it was in the wiring transaction that the bank official participated.

Detectives yesterday interrogated the man and his accomplice in addition to scrutinising the bank transactions.

The anti-corruption crime acting commissioner, Steven Otim, confirmed the arrest.

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