Cytonn Investments chief executive officer Edwin Dande and his three co-founders are set to face Sh. 1.1 billion fraud charges over unauthorized payments they made while working at Britam’s British American Asset Managers. This is after the Court of Appeal ruled that even the case should proceed, even though the money was refunded.
The four are accused of authorizing the payments from Britam’s real estate fund between July and September 2014.
Dande and his colleagues Elizabeth Nkukuu who was the senior portfolio manager, Shiv Arora who was the assistant company secretary and Patricia Njeri who was head of legal services had argued that the money was refunded, rendering the proceedings against them null and void.
However, the court ruled that they admitted to wrongdoing by authorizing the remittances. The court further said that after making this authorization, they had later agreed to reimburse the money in a bid to settle the dispute with Britam.
“Prima facie therefore, there was evidence of the commission of the offence. As to whether the evidence was sufficient to found a conviction is for the trial court,” the three judge bench comprising of Court of Appeal judges, Justices Asike Makhandia, Mumbi Ngugi and Pauline Nyamweya ruled.
The payments were generated by Arora, reviewed by Nkukuu and approved by Dande. The four then allegedly resigned from Britam in a move allegedly calculated to frustrate investigations. They then went on and founded their own business, Cytonn Investments.
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Dande, Nkukuu, Arora and Patricia had moved to the High Court to stop their prosecution. They accused their former employer of malice. However, the High Court dismissed their claim in a judgment that was delivered in 2017 by Justice John Mativo, pushing them to file an appeal at the Court of Appeal.
