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Ecobank to give cash statement to trio in unfrozen Sh2.6 billion
A Malindi-based hotelier risks losing a parcel of land on which its famous hostel is built unless it clears a loan advanced to it by SBM Bank. PHOTO | SHUTTERSTOCK
Ecobank (K) Ltd has been directed to provide three Kenyans seeking a slice of $19.4 million (about Sh2.6 billion), which had been frozen over suspicion of international card fraud syndicate, statement of three bank accounts.
High Court judge Alfred Mabeya directed the lender to furnish Mr Stephen Maina Njenga, Mr Felix Rantuu Lekishe and Mr Solomon Joseph Maina statements of three bank accounts within a week.
The trio complained that they had been sidelined in the management of the accounts belonging to Kiwipay (K) Ltd. The money had initially been frozen following an application by Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) but the matter was later withdrawn last year.
The three claimed that Ecobank had deliberately breached the banker-customer relationship between it and Kiwipay (K) Ltd by allowing the majority shareholder, Frenchman Gregory Schmidt to single-handedly transact monies amounting to $10 million.
The Kenyans said the bank maintained that there was a resolution allowing the transaction through internet banking yet the company had not passed such a resolution authorising internet banking.
“The upshot is that the application is meritorious and is allowed as prayed,” said the judge.
Mr Schmidt had opposed the application saying he was the director of KiwiPay PTE Limited, the majority shareholder in Kiwipay (K) Ltd.
He also denied any breach of the banker-customer relationship on the part of the bank.
He said until the consent order in November last year, the Kenyans were not directors or shareholders in Kiwipay (K) Ltd and could not make any resolutions or enforce obligations on the bank.
According to the Frenchman, KiwiPay PTE initially held 51 percent of the Kenyan company, Ms Monthda Rashi 20 percent, while the Kenyans held 7.5 percent each.
But they later resigned as directors leaving him and KiwiPay PTE Ltd as the only shareholders.
