'Fake company used to defraud American of sh500m'

Jul 03, 2018

The case involves Mohammed Kasule, a former Kampala City Lord Mayoral aspirant, who is facing three counts of obtaining money by false pretence.

PIC: Former City Lord Mayoral aspirant, Muhammed Kasule in the dock at Buganda Road Court on June 27. (Credit: Badru Katumba)

FRAUD


KAMPALA - A company used to defraud an American of sh580m in a botched gold deal is not registered by Uganda Registration Service Bureau (URSB), the court has heard.

The case involves Mohammed Kasule, a former Kampala City Lord Mayoral aspirant, who is facing three counts of obtaining money by false pretence.

The offence attracts a maximum penalty of five years on conviction. Testifying before the Buganda Road Court Chief Magistrate, Mary Babirye, a URSB project support officer in charge of legal affairs, Maureen Nabacwa said in their company search, they did not find any company registered in the names of Blue Diamond's corporation, the company in question.

Nabacwa said they were approached by the investigative officers from the CID headquarters on May 8, 2018, to carry out a search on two companies in connection to the fraud.

The companies were Blue Diamonds International Limited and Blue Diamonds Corporation.

"I did a search on the system and found that Blue Diamonds Corporation does not exist in our database but Blue Diamonds International Limited is incorporated," she said.

She said the Blue Diamonds International was registered on July 21, 2011 and the directors are Leon Meddie Kasule and Leila Nakibirige.

The Bogus gold deal Prosecution led by Senior State Attorney Jonathan Muwaganya alleges that Kasule defrauded an American citizen, Richard Richards, of $160,000 about (about sh580m) in a bogus gold deal.

Prosecution alleges that on June 26, 2017 in Kampala, Kasule obtained $48, 000 (about Sh172m), which was transferred to his bank account, 2202771867 at KCB main branch in Kampala from the bank account, 012314610505201 of Senior Presidential Advisor on Diaspora matters, Florence Kiremerwa, while falsely pretending that he was selling 2kg of Gold to her, whereas not.

It also states that on August, 31, 2017, Kasule also obtained $79,990 (about Sh287.9m) from Richards 2502, which was transferred to his KCB bank account through inward SWIFT Pa-AT-DPC from Richards 2502 EUTA in USA while falsely pretending that he was selling him 25 kgs of gold.

The third count states that on September 13, 2017 in Kampala, Kasule obtained $29727 (about Sh107m) from Richards, which was transferred to his KCB bank account while falsely pretending that it was an additional payment for the 25 kgs of Gold he sold to him.

Earlier, Samuel Angura, a manager of Emirates Airline Sky Cargo, told court that contrary to the claims that the suspect used the airline to export the gold to Baltimore in USA, they never received such export requests from anyone.

He stated that the matter was brought to their attention by the CID police headquarters' letter, requesting them to search their records for a request for shipment of the gold under the company name of Blue Diamonds Corporation.

The letter dated, May 8, addressed to the manager emirates air cargo, requested the airline to establish whether the tracking number 31128472, which is on the shipment form, is genuine and belonged to the airline.

It requested them to establish whether there was any unprocessed Gold shipment request, establish if the cargo is held up in Dubai and verify its current location and whether they have ever received any complaints from Kasule in respect to the consignment.

"I responded in writing on May 8, 2018 and told them that the tracking number does not appear in our system. There was no such record that such cargo processed in the names of Blue Diamonds Corporation," he said.

He stated that the company is not known to them and has never undertaken any cargo uplift with Emirates. He also responded that Kasule has never contacted them in regard to the shipment of the gold bars to Baltimore.

Guided by Muwaganya, he told court that even the Airline Bill copy police gave them does not belong to Emirates and that they have no airline by the name Shume in their docket.

Efforts by Kasule's lawyer, Hassan Kamba, to get him bail where thwarted by the magistrate who offered to hear him another day. She adjourned the matter to July 3 for further hearing.

 

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