Former Crane Bank Employees Petition FIA to Investigate DFCU Bosses over Money Laundering

Over 400 former Employees of Crane Bank Limited through their lawyer, Isaac Ssemakadde of Centre for Legal Aid have petitioned the Executive Director of the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) over suspicious transactions by DFCU Bank Managing Director, Juma Kisaame and other Bank executives over alleged money laundering.

The petition is based on the media reports indicating that Kisaame is the holder of Account No. 01087990270 with Bank of Africa Uganda Limited with a balance of USD 40m as at March 1, 2016.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Ssemakadde together with some former employers of Crane Bank said that they have all reasons to believe that Juma Kisaame could have engaged in illegal activities to unjustly influence and benefit from DFCU Bank’s purchase of Crane Bank Ltd which resulted into unlawful termination of their employment with little or no compensation for the affected workers.

Ssemakadde said that the transactions on Kisaame’s account are inconsistent with the holder’s legitimate earnings as a bank employee.

“The withdrawals on the account are complex, highly unusual and ostensibly of no apparent or visible economic purpose. For instance, in the first week of March 2016, Kisaame allegedly withdrew USD 500, 000 on Tuesday, USD 400, 000 on Wednesday and USD 300, 000 on Saturday,” Ssemakadde said.

He noted that the suspicious transactions occurred shortly before DFCU Bank’s controversial takeover of Crane Bank Limitted and unlawful termination of our clients.

“The purpose of this letter is to request the authority to inspect all Bank Accounts held by or in trust for Juma Kisaame and other Executives of DFCU Bank, and cause an investigation into whether the said executives or their personal bankers committed any money laundering offences in the take over of Crane Bank Ltd to the detriment of our clients and the public at large,” the letter to Financial Intelligence Authority reads.

Recently, Bank of Africa issued a statement in response to the issue apologizing to Kisaame for the leaked details. The bank also committed to reprimand the staffer(s) who leaked details of his bank account to the public.

“Management carried out an extensive investigation and established that one of the staff was compromised to access Mr Juma Kisaame’s accounts,” the Management of Bank of Africa said in the press statement.

“The bank has initiated necessary disciplinary proceedings against them and will make a formal criminal complaint,” added the statement.