Housing Finance (HF Group) chief executive officer boss Frank Ireri and his in-law have been named in a multi-billion bad loans scandal. They have been named by a former senior HF Group employee Kevin Isika who was in charge of credit.
According to The Standard newspaper, court filings show that Mr. Ireri also signed off off one of three loans worth Sh660 million awarded to firms owned by prominent billionaire and founder of Equity Bank Peter Munga.
Apparently, Ireri also extended a Sh133 million loan to his in-laws through a company called Ryan Properties Ltd, Sh10 million, which has never been paid, to his nephew’s Ecomaji Ltd and Sh150 million to Munga’s Equatorial Nuts.
In signing off these loans, Mr. Ireri overruled his colleagues from the credit department which had found the applicants not fit to be granted loans.
“The developers are Ireri’s in-laws and despite my indicating to him that he should not be signing this without disclosure, he continued…” HFC’s former Credit Director Kevin Isika says in the court documents. “An unsecured (loan) excess of Sh150 million was approved by Frank alone,” Isika continues.
This was the loan given to Munga’s Equatorial Nuts Processors, a 23-year-old firm that processes peanuts, macadamia and cashew nuts.
He further alleged that another mega loan given to Ireri’s brother-in-law through a company called Shade Systems has also never been repaid. Ireri is also accused of aggressively blocking attempts to recover another loan from a defaulting borrower called Amazing Tours and Travel.