Myriad Investment Club Ltd, a company belonging to Stanbic Bank’s senior executives that are accused of colluding with other bank staff to buy off, very cheaply, a property of a distressed client was registered weeks after the property had been advertised for auction, documents seen by this site indicate.
According to documents, in what appears to be a swift and carefully orchestrated insider dealing scandal, it took Myriad Investment Club less than two months to register, secure a bank loan and buy off Plots 1,3,4,5 and 6 Works Close, Luzira on the 25th of March 2020 for UGX1 billion.
Documents from Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB) show that Myriad was registered on the 3rd of February 2020- although the process started in January, a few days after the property had been advertised for sale, sometime in December 2019.
The registered directors are: Kenneth Kitungulu, Executive and Head, Global Markets; Lawrence Kaweesa, Allan Muhinda, Daisy Nitwe and Emmanuel Rukeeba, Head Products and Analytics. Others are: Maureen Kembabazi Katwebaze who works with Stanbic IBTC Bank, Nigeria, and Thaib Lubega, a Thaib has an accountTreasury Manager at Uganda Development Bank, but previously working at Stanbic as a Treasury Manager.
The property in question belongs to Macdowel Ltd, a Ugandan company that has since taken the matter to police for investigation. The land in question has an apartment hotel on it- McDowel Apartments.
Beatrice Odongo, one of the company’s directors, in a 23rd September 2020 letter to the Special Investigations Division of the Criminal Investigations Directorate, has asked police to investigate circumstances under which their property was illegally sold, yet the loan has been repaid.
Under s.39(2) and (3) of The Mortgage Act, the sale of mortgaged property by a bank to its employees is a crime punishable by imprisonment of not less than 24 months.
“We mortgaged our properties at Plots 1,3,4,5 and 6 Works Close, Luzira to Stanbic Bank (U) Limited as security for a loan advanced in 2017. We have since paid off the entire loan, but the bank has refused to release our titles,” says Ms. Odongo in the letter to police.
She also says the alleged auction did not take place but rather a deal was weaved from within the bank and with the collusion of bank officials who are colleagues to the accused.
“The sale agreement was drawn by the bank’s legal department, colleagues of the buyers; directors/shareholders. It bears the stamp of Head PBB Credit, Stanbic, and signature of Denis Lugoloobi, Senior Manager Credit Evaluation signing for the bank. Stanbic Bank conspired with its employees to grab our properties at a low price of UGX1 billion. Stanbic even gave them the opportunity and time to obtain credit from DFCU to finance the purchase. The sale agreement indicates a public auction and sale was concluded on 25th March 2020,” Odongo says.