3 more senior ex-Chase Bank managers charged
Three more senior former Chase Bank managers were yesterday charged in a Nairobi court with conspiring to defraud the bank of more than Sh1.6 billion.
Duncan Gichui, the former group managing director, James Mwenja, the general manager of credit and Makarios Agumbi, the finance general manager, appeared before Milimani senior principal magistrate Martha Mutuku and denied various counts of fraud.
The magistrate ordered each of them to be released on Sh5 million bond with a surety of a similar amount with the alternative of Sh2 million bail following a successful application by their lawyer Cecil Miller, who informed the court his clients are not a flight risk.
In his application, the lawyer asked the court to grant them similar bond terms to those imposed to the first accused - former chairman of Chase Bank Zafrullah Khan - who has already pleaded not guilty on the same charges.
The prosecution, led by senior state counsel James Warui and Victor Mule, did not oppose the defence bail application, but urged the court to consider the amount involved when granting bond.
The magistrate also ordered the accused to deposit in court their passports and not to travel outside the country without the court’s permission.
On June 29, Khan, who had spent two days in police custody, was granted the same bond terms after Miller informed the court he is not a flight risk.
He was ordered to deposit his passport with the court and not to leave its jurisdiction without permission.
Earlier the prosecutors, while opposing the bond application by Khan, had told the court that investigating officer inspector Julius Musoga in his sworn affidavit maintained that the accused has other charges in five different files also involving millions of shillings.
The prosecutors insisted that the charges against Khan are not intended to block him from pursuing specialised heart treatment in the US.
Miller informed the court the prosecution’s action to bring his client to court was malicious and meant to block him from seeking medical treatment in America. He had asked the court to defer the charges since the prosecution had initially failed to set aside an order issued by the High Court compelling the release of his passport to facilitate his travel and resorted to hurry the charges in court.
This article was first published by the Star on July 21