Director of Public Prosecutions Renson Ingonga has applied for a warrant to arrest Equity Bank manager David Machiri Kimani over the Sh1.5bn Equity Bank heist , even as his family insists that police abducted him and have since shared CCTV footage showing the dramatic capture of his father, Peter Kimani Machiri, in Murang'a.
Abduction caught on CCTV: Relatives of Equity Bank heist suspects speak out
Through a prosecuting counsel, Mr Ingonga on Thursday alleged to Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Geoffrey Onsarigo that Mr Kimani had previously jumped bail. However, he denied the family's claim that police had abducted the bank manager.
But a battery of advocates who are defending the suspect, led by Mr Njiru Ndegwa, urged the magistrate to order the DPP, through the acting Inspector-General of Police Gilbert Masengeli and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), to produce Mr Kimani in court to face justice.
He said that his client was already arrested and whisked away by police, a claim that was vehemently denied by the prosecution.
Mr Ndegwa maintained that his client was unlawfully and illegally arrested soon after he was released on bond after recording a statement with DCI detectives.
The defence team told the court that the Equity Bank manager has been held incommunicado and that he has not contacted his family, which is now traumatised and fears for his life.
The lawyers told the magistrate that the suspect's wife, Ms Susan Wariga, has filed a missing person report at Kikuyu Police Station under OB number 0512/8/24. They allege that the police have not acted on it.
The lawyers stated the police also arrested the father of the suspect, saying there was no justification to arrest the elderly man.
They wanted the court to order the Inspector-General of Police to produce the respondent by 2pm Thursday, dead or alive.
The State prosecutor told the court that Mr Kimani, a manager at Equity Bank, escaped after he was freed on a police bond last month, right after recording a statement over the alleged theft of Sh1.5 billion from the lender.
The theft, which is touted to be one of the country’s biggest heists, was allegedly effected through 47 suspect transactions.
“Preliminary investigations from the lender's internal control department established that credentials of David Machiri Kimani, a manager at the salary processing unit, were used to process the transactions of KSh1,545,887,140.49,” the prosecutor told Mr Onsarigo while pressing for the warrant of arrest to be issued against the suspect.
The Central Bank of Kenya’s (CBK) Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU) had obtained orders on July 12, 2024, to detain Mr Kimani for a period of 21 days for interrogation of the huge loss from the Country’s second biggest bank with a customer base of over 14 million account holders.
From the preliminary investigations, it has since been discovered that the monies were wired from EBL to various accounts in different banks.
The DPP told Mr Onsarigo that the receiving accounts of the hundreds of millions were businesses that were newly registered at the Company Registry at the Attorney-General Chambers.
“Investigations have made it more evident that these new businesses were registered for the sole purpose of receiving the fraudulently obtained funds,” the state prosecutor told the magistrate.
The investigating Officer of the bank heist, Inspector Bonface Maina of CBK, told Mr Onsarigo that he “is undertaking further offences of money laundering contrary to Section 3(b)(iii) as read with Section 16(1)(a) of the proceeds of crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act (No.9 of 2009), Stealing by Servant Contrary to Section281 of the Penal Code.”
Equity Bank reported the crime in a letter dated July 11, 2024, signed by Kevin Mwangi, the Head of Security at the lender. While filing the complaint, Mr Mwangi stated that all the transaction that led to the exit of the millions lacked corresponding credits from source entities or individuals, thus raising suspicion from the bank's internal controls team.
The court will on Friday, August 16, decide whether to issue the warrant of arrest as requested by the DPP.
