Firm directors fined Sh2m for Sh243m bank fraud

Two company directors were on Monday fined Sh2 million each or serve a two-year jail term for defrauding a bank of more than Sh243 million six years ago.

Senior Principal Magistrate Martha Mutuku handed down the sentence after convicting Javendra Khimti Malde and George Anatieku Opollo of the offence of defrauding Fina Bank of Sh243,337,942.

The two were convicted of falsely informing the bank that they had been allowed to get a bank overdraft in the account of Khalina Enterprises Limited based in Thika, Kiambu County.

The two had been charged alongside other directors of Khalina Enterprises Limited — Ranjan Javendra Malde, Millan Javendra Malde and Geoffrey Were Radier — who were discharged for lack of evidence linking them to the fraud.

They were accused of hatching the plot to defraud the bank on diverse dates between January 4 and August 2010 in Thika Town, being directors of Khalina Enterprises Limited.

The charge alleged that all the accused incurred a liability to Fina Bank of Sh243,337,842 by falsely pretending that they had been authorised to overdraw the amount, a fact they knew to be false.

'COLOSSAL AMOUNT'

“The prosecution has proved that the bank lost the colossal amount through misrepresentation by the accused,” Ms Mutuku said in a judgment delivered at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi.

The magistrate had been asked to treat the two accused as first-time offenders.

In their mitigations the accused asked for leniency in their sentencing, saying they were family people and also requested a non-custodial sentence.

“This court considers your mitigation. You are hereby fined Sh2 million or to serve two years' imprisonment in case of default,” ruled Ms Mutuku.

The magistrate allowed the offenders 14 days to appeal against the sentence.