Depositors’ Money not Safe
By The Uganda Times
IS DEPOSITORS’ MONEY SAFE?
MISC.APPLICATION NO.34 & 35 OF 2020
Arising from CIVAL SUIT No.43 OF 2020
Ham Enterprises, one of the companies owned by prominent businessman Hamis Kiggundu. The company has dragged Diamond Trust Uganda to commercial court after the bank illegally and fraudulently debited over 120 billion UGX from its accounts over a period of 10 years.
In a letter dated, November 16, 2019 the company wrote to the bank in response to a letter written to them by the bank about unknown and unclear sums of money claimed to be owed to the bank by the company.
This compelled Ham Enterprises to carry out an audit of all its settled and pending facilities with the bank. “It was revealed that through extortionate, irregular, unlawful, deceptive transactions and in breach of contractual, fiduciary and statutory duties; the bank fraudulently through misrepresentation, irregularly debited and recovered monies from their accounts,” reads the letter in one part.
That through vigorous, deceptive, fraudulent, unscrupulous, under regulated, unfair, unjust schemes with use of their superior bargaining position contracted the company into unconscionable terms of contract, unjustly enriched themselves jointly and severely.
Through the letter, the company notified the bank that it had terminated all its contracts with the bank.
“That the actions of the bank in regard to their previous dealings had complicated, stifled and frustrated their contractual obligations and duties with Diamond Trust Uganda and Kenya all which amounted to breach of contract. The company thereby communicated termination of all existing contracts. Clearly stating that, as far as Ham Enterprises (U) Ltd is concerned; there was no indebtedness to the bank.”,
Without any denial as the bank clearly knew what they had done, this was later followed by another communication from the company dated January 10, 2020, where the company wrote a demand notice to Diamond Trust Bank (U) and Kenya for refund of their monies
The company clearly asking for the money fraudulently withdrawn from its accounts which is above and in excess with a total excess of 29,035, 682, 682 billion Ugandan shillings unlawfully debited from their shillings account and 22, 938, 582.29 Million United States Dollars debited from their Unites States Dollars accounts, reads the letter.
The company demanded for a full accounts figurative audit, account reconciliation and a detailed explanation on the same otherwise Ham Enterprises U Ltd requested that its money should be refunded to its accounts within five days from then and that its Certificates of Titles pledged as security be returned for as far as the company was concerned there is conclusive evidence that the bank had fully been paid and on top of which the bank had fraudulently withdrawn to a tune of 100 billion UGX from the company’s accounts. Failure of which leaves the company with no choice but to seek redress from the regulator or constitute legal action for remedies against Diamond Trust Bank Uganda/Diamond Trust Kenya for recovery of the company’s money.
The Uganda Times gathers that the bank failed to refund money it stole from the company’s accounts which prompted them to sue the bank for recovery, costs and damages.
The scandal exposes the bank as an untrustworthy institution. Customers currently operating loan accounts in the bank might have to conduct thorough audits as their might be more of the same fraudulently debits being done by the bank. If a big client like Ham Enterprises who should be treasured can be cheated, it is likely that many more are falling victim.
DTB was top on their list of worst banks last year following a series of fraud scandals. The foreign owned bank has done a lot of harm than good to Uganda, falling back on what is expected of them. Rather than build, DTB has frustrated the economy of Uganda. The bank repatriates all profits made in Uganda.