A total of two 20 senior officials in five banks, are likely to be charged for aiding the laundering of at least Sh1 billion looted from the National Youth Service (NYS).
Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti and his counterpart at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji said they are considering prosecuting the 20 individuals which they believe aided the laundering between January 2016 and April last year.
The banks in question include Kenya Commercial Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Equity Bank, Diamond Trust Bank and the Cooperative Bank of Kenya.
The said banks transacted Sh3.72 billion that was looted from the NYS before being wired to several individuals and firms, something investigators believe was aimed at laundering the loot.
Standard Charted had the highest amount of looted NYS funds moved, standing at Sh1.628 billion, it now emerges. Out of that, Sh558.58 million was transacted by the bank officials who failed to alert the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) of the huge amounts moved as required by law.
Mr Haji states that Sh886 million was moved through Equity, out of which transactions of Sh271 million were not reported to the FRC.
Another Sh800 million was moved through KCB. The lender’s officials approved transactions of Sh148 million without following anti-money laundering laws, which require reporting of large transactions to the FRC.
Cooperative Bank allegedly aided the movement of Sh250 million, and failed to report transactions of Sh25 million to the FRC.
DTB allegedly failed to report the movement of Sh27 million out of the Sh164 million that passed through its systems.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has already fined the five banks a total of Sh392 million for failing to report large transactions to the industry regulator as require by law.
Equity Bank is the hardest hit by the investigation as six of its senior officials will be charged alongside their employer.
Also targeted are five officials from Standard Chartered, four from Diamond Trust, three from KCB and two from Cooperative Bank.
