Family Bank and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) have now entered into a plea bargain agreement in court in the Ksh 1.6 billion National Youth Service (NYS) money laundering case.
Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Daniel Karuri said on Monday the bank has agreed to plead guilty” freely and voluntarily.”
“The accused person knowingly, voluntarily, and truthfully admits to enter into this plea bargain and is pleading guilty freely,” reads the agreement.
The bank, through the Head of Security John Muchiri King’ori, is expected to plead guilty to six counts of failure to report transactions made by, NYS suspects who include Josephine Kabura, on December 20, 2018.
According to the documents filed at the Milimani court, the bank is expected to pay Ksh 64.5 million as court fine for the six counts.
Ksh 24.5 million will be deposited into account of NYS and the balance of Ksh 40 million shall be deposited as court fine.
“If the accused person-The bank fails to comply with the terms and conditions set forth in the plea agreement, the state may fully prosecute the accused on all criminal charges that can be brought against it,” reads part of the agreement.
The agreement is dated 11 of December of this year and signed by secretary of public prosecutions Dorcas Oduor.
The bank had been accused that on December 22, 2014 and May 19, 2015, being a reporting institution, it failed to comply with its reporting obligations by failing to report unusual transactions.
The bank had approached DPP three times seeking out of court settlement.
Through defence lawyers Waweru Gatonye and lawyer Cecil Miller, who are representing the bank Chief Executive officer John King’ori, it asked Milimani Senior Principal Martha Mutuku to give them two more weeks until December 17 to respond to a proposal by the DPP Noordin Haji on their out of court settlement plea.
They said defense had lodged fresh negotiations to have the matter settled out of court after the first and second attempts flopped.
“The parties are seeking to settle the matter out of court and we urged the court to give us another time more to engage the different complainants from various government agencies as it has not been possible to conclude the negotiations but now we hope it will go through,” said Gatonye.
The first request was rejected by the then former DPP Keriako Tobiko, while the second one was rejected by the current DPP Haji.
It is said that Family bank has written several proposal letters to DPP, EACC, Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge and PS, Public Works seeking to have the matter settle the matter out of court.
King’ori, who is the current CEO of the bank, has since pleaded to the charges on behalf of the bank as the eighth accused person.
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In the case, he is charged alongside former CEO Peter Munyiri, KTDA Branch Manager Robert Oscar Nyaga, Anti-money compliance manager Charles Kamau Thiongo, Head of Risk and compliance Raphael Mutinda Ndunda, Operations Supervisor Nancy Njambi, Relationship Platinum manager Meldon Awino Onyango and Customer Service supervisor Josephine Wairi with failure to report significant transactions carried out by Kabura, who is the chief suspect, using three bank accounts held at the bank.
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