The High Court has granted the anti-graft body, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (Eacc) green light to unmask closely guarded secrets of controversial dealings by the officials of multi-billion real estate firm, Tatu City.
In a case reminiscing a mafioso movie script, the ownership, actual value, identity of the owners and cross-border financial transactions involving the estate partially owned by foreigners has been a roller coaster.
Besides deliberately blocking investigations into the running of the various companies co-owning the estate, cases of tax evasion, death threats, money laundering con-games and fraud targeting innocent buyers that has dragged in names of the high and mighty in government and business moguls and has compounded the goings on of the estate that is now on the verge of being laid bare.
A Nairobi Anti-Corruption Court dismissed a petition by the developers challenging the investigative mandate and powers of Eacc to obtain information relating to their operations effectively granting unfettered probe into the controversial venture bearing all the hallmarks of an international economic hit-men racket.
Lady Justice Esther Maina ruled that the anti-graft body has powers to investigate matters intertwined with corruption, including tax evasion and money laundering.
Effectively, Eacc sleuths are now free to seize any material deemed crucial to unearthing suspected irregularities by Tatu City and its main subsidiary Kofinaf regarding money laundering claims and defrauding taxpayers of billions of shillings.
Eacc accuses the directors, who include Stephen Jennings, the chief executive officer and founder of Rendeavour, the majority shareholder of Tatu City and Chris Barron, the country head, who has previously held the positions of chief operations officer, head of sales and operations manager, of transacting multi-billion relating to the sale of thousands of acres of land by Tatu City in Ruiru, Kiambu county without payment of taxes to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).
Investigations by The Informer established that according to the account statement dated January 1, 2010 to March 20, 2013, Stephen Jennings through Renaissance Partners Investment Limited as a facility agent is said to have borrowed a tranche D loan of a total of USD 5, 800, 00 on behave of Tatu City without the knowledge of Local partners and submitted USD 5,500,000 of the money to a hidden foreign account in Cyprus.
The said money was wired to this foreign account without the local partners knowing what was going on but it was added to the amount of the loan that Tatu City shall repay.
The remaining USD 300,000 Sh30million is said to have been wired to NIC Bank, Westlands Branch Account Number 1*******72.
Rendeavour claims to be an international investment company owning 12,000 hectares of infrastructural development across Africa in Nigeria, Congo and Ghana but no proof of the same has been provided so far.
Rendeavour is the company that paid Sh2.4 billion and Sh7.56 billion to Socfinaf, a Belgian coffee and rubber producer, for the Tatu City and Kofinaf land, respectively.
In 2016, the then Rendeavour Country Director Nick Langford said an estimated sh2.2billion (22million US Dollars) is expected to be spent in the next two years.
Langford said they had 11,000 registered title deeds and Tatu City had issued 44 leases and sold up to 150 plots out of the 2,500 cares.
The directors are also accused of undervaluing costs of the transactions and other dubious dealings that could amount to serious economic crimes.
The probe will expose the firm’s other illegal operations which has been at the centre of a vicious war pitting local investors and foreign billionaires.
Investigations began in 2018 but were stopped in 2019 by a court order. However, the probe has resumed after the anti-corruption court disallowed a plea from the officials to protect themselves from investigations.
Eacc has been pursuing Tatu City developers, a consortium of investors working on a 5,000-acre project hosting homes, schools, offices, a shopping district, medical clinics, nature areas, a sports and entertainment complex and manufacturing area for more than 150,000 residents and tens of thousands of day visitors.
Detectives suspect the developers have been running an enterprise that thrives on suspected money laundering and fraud in which the government has lost billions of shillings following accusations that they have been repatriating huge amounts from the sale of land to offshore accounts in Mauritius, Bermuda and Germany, without paying taxes.
However, Tatu City and Kofinaf directors argue the investigations are meant to aid extortion, harassment and interference in favour of its disgruntled minority shareholders.
The directors accused the minority shareholders of trying to extort the legitimate owners of Tatu City and also harassing international shareholders through influence of the Judiciary, police, immigration services and media.
“…all evidence of their actions has been turned over to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the EACC,” read court documents.
According to court papers, the disgruntled directors are Steve Mwagiru, a coffee farmer and his partners, Vimal Shah, chairman of Bidco Group, and Nahashon Nyagah, a former Central Bank of Kenya Governor, who co-own Manhattan Group.
Tatu City accuses the minority shareholders of trying to extort the legitimate owners of Tatu City and also harassing international shareholders “through influence of the Judiciary, police, immigration services and media” and that “all evidence of their actions has been turned over to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the EACC”.
Tatu also accuses Nyagah of attempting to fraudulently change the shareholding of Kenyan companies that own the land to his sister, driver and members of his church.
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