The High Court has frozen Ksh.115 million sent to a Kenyan woman identified as Isabel Nyaguthii Wanjohi by a company registered in Mauritius.
The money suspected to be proceeds of crime was found in a Standard Chartered Bank account belonging to Ms. Wanjohi, who works with Platinum Credit Limited.
Lady Justice Esther Maina of the Anti-corruption court on Tuesday, June 7 directed Standard Chartered Bank to transfer the money to Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) for preservation, awaiting determination of the case.
Reports by ARA, states that on April 13, Ms. Wanjohi received $1million from Platcorp Holding Limited alleged to be an unsecured loan whose purpose was not revealed. The agency later stopped it as she was about to wire it to South Africa through swift transfer, also without an explanation.
The agency then raised an alarm that the transactions indicated money laundering activities and asked Ms. Wanjohi to explain. In her explanation, she supposedly produced an agreement with Platcorp Holdings Ltd claiming it was an unsecured loan.
Moreover, she further produced a second agreement dated April 7, 2022, between her and Premier Credit, where she was to loan the company the same amount of money. However, the purpose of the loan agreement was not revealed and no one signed as a witness.
“The investigations established that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the funds in issue are proceeds of crime obtained from illegitimate sources by the respondent which require to be preserved pending filing and hearing of an intended forfeiture application,” Gitiri Jennifer, a principal state counsel at the agency, said.
The case is set to be mentioned on September 12.