Investec is a respected Anglo South African merchant bank listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2002 and said to be worth UK £3.5 billion (about Ksh 472.5 billion).  Its Guernsey operation Investec Trust Guernsey (ITG) has become embroiled in Kenya’s Anglo Leasing grand corruption scandal. 

Mars Group Kenya has now obtained and uploaded for the first time a leaked dossier of Investec Trust documents which appear to provide compelling documentary evidence to the effect that:

1. Billions of shillings were laundered through bank accounts in Jersey, Guernsey, Southampton and Zurich and distributed to unknown recipients. 

2. 13 of the 18 Anglo Leasing contracts can be directly connected to Rashmi Kamani and Andrew MacGill of LBA Systems – these include the Kenya Police Airwing helicopters which to date have cost the Kenyan taxpayer over 60 million dollars (about 4 billion shillings)

3. Rashmi Kamani is a controlling hand behind Sound Day Corporation, Apex Finance and Anglo Leasing and Finance all of which received millions of UK pounds (billions of shillings) from the Government of Kenya

4. Rashmi Kamani was a signatory to at least one of the LBA Systems accounts maintained by Investec in the Channel Islands that received money from the Government of Kenya and through which Government of Kenya money was transmitted to Zurich from where the trail runs cold.

5. Although he was not a customer of Investec, Rashmi Kamani issued fax instructions at least 4 times to Investec to send money from LBA’s accounts to numbered Swiss Bank accounts – money which had been received from the Government of Kenya based on fictitious contracts.  On at least one occasion Mr. Kamani’s phone calls to Investec in Guernsey caused concern within the bank to the extent that several internal memos memoranda were exchanged.

6. Andrew MacGill allowed his accounts at Investec, Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC to be used to launder Anglo Leasing payments for a commission.

7. Although Mr. MacGill (and LBA Systems by his own admission) was in serious financial difficulties since 1996 and lacked the capacity, LBA Systems mysteriously benefited from 4 single sourced contracts worth Ksh 11 billion whose performance was challenged by the Controller and Auditor General yet the contract sums were (in 3 contracts) paid in full by the Government of Kenya.

8. Arms end user certificates were issued by the Police Commissioner Philemon Abongo for such non Police materiel as anti-tank grenades, hand grenades, 500 kilograms of C4 Explosive and mortars from a Yugoslavian company suspected of sanction-busting deals with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.  LBA instructions to Yugo Imports of Belgrade were that “No packing notes, copies or price lists to be included in the consignment.  Packages should not indicate Country of Origin.”

9. Major UK banks including the HSBC and Standard Chartered may have had their accounts used by Kenyan account holders to launder the proceeds of crimes against the Government of Kenya.

10. Investec was alarmed firstly by the widely publicized allegations of corruption and non-delivery made in the Githongo Dossier, investigations by the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission, the Controller and Auditor General and the Parliamentary Accounts Committee.  It as also very concerned that accounts it managed for LBA Systems appeared to have been operated in breach of anti money laundering rules and also been used for suspect arms trading between the Kenya Police and Yugoslavia and Iran.

11. At least 1.8 billion shillings can be directly traced from the Government of Kenya to Apex Finance and Anglo Leasing through cash transactions recorded in the Investec dossier.  Included amongst these are payments for a contract with Globotel which Finance Minister Amos Kimunya claimed was never signed – the Administration Police Telecommunications Network contract of May 2003.

12. Investec’s own lawyers believe that a theoretical claim may lie from the Kenyan people against their client for dishonest assistance.  The scandal has been described as “the worst thing to ever hit Investec.”  Internally, all the LBA account managers have left Investec, including the Managing Director Ian Burns and Assistant Manager Ollie Goddard.  Investec lawyers have advised that the Investec Trust Guernsey should file Suspicious Activity Reports related to the Kenyan transactions to provide it with a defence against prosecution by financial regulators and/or the Kenyan Government.

Despite a recent High Court ruling ordering the return of their Kenya Passports, Rashmi Kamani and his brother Deepak Kamani remain fugitives from Kenyan justice according to ‘Wanted’ posters on both the Kenya Police and Kenya Anti Corruption Commission websites. 

It is not known whether the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission still has caveats placed on two properties associated with the Kamani brothers, and believed to have been purchased with proceeds of Anglo Leasing type contracts (an expansive flower farm in Athi River and a luxury Spa on the Diani Reef).  Both brothers are listed worldwide as Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs).

Clearly the Kenyan people deserve more answers than they are getting from the Justice Ringera, the Director of the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission on these matters of national concern.  In particular, Kenyans would wish to have the actions recommended by the Price Water House Coopers Report made public as soon as possible, if they are to believe that the Government of Kenya is actually conducting any investigations.

Regardless of the GOK inertia, these transactions are being investigated.  A couple of weeks ago, the British press reported a Serious Fraud Office investigation into the UK aspects of the notorious Anglo Leasing scam involving off-shore banks in the English Channel Islands.  The press reports referenced the two internal inquiries conducted by Investec Trust into the operations of two accounts it managed for a client (LBA Systems) in Jersey and Guernsey. 

Apparently, both inquiries were triggered by the publication of the Githongo Dossier in November 2005 which named an Investec client (LBA Systems of Scotland) and two companies (Sound Day Corporation and Apex Finance Corporation of Switzerland) which had received billions of Kenya Shillings from LBA ostensibly as payments due on contracts with the Kenya Police.