The court has ruled that Faulu Bank officials, who were accused of forging their client’s signature in a bid to fraudulently auction a property worth Sh150 million, have a case to answer.
While delivering the ruling, Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina stated that Faulu Microfinance Bank credit officers Amos Mugweru Mwangi, Peter Kefa Onsongo, and Tom Jaseme, together with trader Paul Njuki, businesswoman Esther Muthoni Maina, and auctioneer Robert Wamwere Maina, had a case to answer. He ordered them to present their defence.
“All six accused persons have a case to answer, and this court has deemed it appropriate to put them on their defence,” the magistrate ruled.
The six were charged with conspiring to defraud Alice Wanjiru Wamwea by means of the fraudulent auction of her property LR NO 209/11315 in Huruma, valued at Sh150 million, between 30 May 2015 and 28 March 2018 at an unknown place in Nairobi, within Nairobi County.
They were further charged with the offence of stealing contrary to section 275 of the Penal Code.
Mugweru and Muthoni were separately charged with the offences of stealing and forgery, respectively.
During the hearing of the case, the court heard that on March 23, 2015 at an unknown place in Nairobi, Muthoni forged the signature of Alice Wanjiru Wamwea on Faulu Bank application form purporting it to be a genuine signature of said Wamwea.
On diverse dates between August 8, 2014 and April 11, 2015 at Faulu Bank head office in Nairobi County, jointly with others who were not in court, Mugweru stole Ksh 22,000,000, the property of Alice Wanjiru Wamwea.
Muthoni is charged with forging the signature of Wamwea on Faulu Bank loan application form, purporting it to be a genuine signature of Wamwea.
In his testimony, Chief Inspector Isaack Ogutu told the court that a forensic document examiner made a report stating that the signature of Wamwea, an 80-year-old widow, was forged and her property auctioned over a Ksh 85 million loan she had allegedly failed to settle.
In her testimony, the widow told the court that she borrowed Ksh 52 million loan from Faulu Bank in order to develop the property by building rental houses where the money was disbursed in two separate payments at a rate of 12% per annum given a period of 54 months.
She put the title of the property as security for the loan and signed the relevant documents in regards to the loan request.
The second loan was disbursed on April 12, 2014 as she continued to pay the first loan as agreed.
According to the statement she recorded, she requested the bank statements to understand status of her two accounts and she was never provided,
“I was paying the loan as per the agreement but when I requested for the bank statements they never produced not even one, to the juncture I sensed something was wrong,” read her statement.
She proceeded to the Co-operative bank seeking a loan to offset the one in Faulu.
She was given an offer by the Co-operative bank which she signed on June 4, 2018, for the bank to undertake and pay the loan at Faulu on her behalf.
The bank had valued the property and found its value amounted to Sh 150 million.
Faulu refused to release the statements and documents including the copy of the title deed to Co-operative Bank; instead, they cleared the holding account with Sh 58,952,900 which was contrary to the letter of offer dated May 9, 2015.
Due to these reasons, they refused to disburse the loan.
The Investigation had revealed that the complainant had opened two accounts one being a holding account where the deducted loan from the main one were to be deposited.
Ogutu said that the monies which were omitted from the main account for loan repayment according to the documents, amounted to 58,952,900 of which it was not remitted for the intended purpose of loan payment,
“The holding account had 58,952,900 for the purpose of paying the loan as per the documents but the money was transferred to other accounts without deducting the loan due,” Ogutu told the court.
She told the court that she never signed any document for the loan of Sh 65 million and was astonished to learn about that information,
“I never borrowed a loan of 65 million but this is the amount I paid for the loan I borrowed together with interest accrued,” Wamwea said.
During this point the investigators collected specimen signatures from previous bank transaction documents she had signed and that foreign document and subjected them to documents examiner at DCI Headquarters banking unit for analysis.
The report which was produced before the court by the documents examiner concluded that the signatures did not originate from the same person.
Investigations further revealed that the subject property had been sold through Oceans Investment Supplying Limited, an auctioneering firm.
