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Imperial Bank’s principal shareholder and chairman Alnashir Popat used ghost accounts to move depositor funds that were then used to pay his foreign currency loans, newly released information on insider dealings that led to the lender’s collapse shows. FTI Consulting, the US firm that conducted a forensic audit on the bank, says Mr Popat and his co-directors were direct beneficiaries of the scandal that was unearthed upon the sudden death last year of former Imperial Bank managing director Abdulmalek Janmohamed.
Imperial Bank’s receiver manager, the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC), says in fresh court filing that the directors allowed use of fictitious accounts to facilitate transactions on their behalf and thereafter benefited from the said accounts.
It accuses the directors of allowing “settlement of foreign currency liabilities owed by Alnashir Popat, the first defendant, by way of funds transfer from
accounts linked to the fraudulent activity”. It is not clear from the court papers how much money of the depositor funds were used to settle Mr Popat’s debts.
The directors are further accused of “allowing use of fictitious customer accounts to facilitate transactions on their behalf, and thereafter benefiting from the said accounts and transactions, which accounts were used to conceal fraudulent activity at the bank.”
This is the first time that Imperial Bank directors have been directly linked to the mega theft, which has all along been attributed to Mr Janmohamed.
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