A billionaire businessman is caught up in a legal dispute with his relative, whom he accuses of defrauding him of Sh2 billion. The money, he says, was paid by clients over a period of seven years.
Mohan Galot, the 72-year-old owner of London Distillers and Mohan Meakin, is accusing his nephew, Pravin Galot, of registering a company with a similar name to Manchester Outfitters (K) Ltd which he owns.
Mohan appointed Pravin as a director at Manchester Outfitters in 1994 with a monthly salary of Ksh170,000. “Before employing Pravin, I paid for his education in high school and university in the USA. He failed to graduate and got no credentials,” says Mohan in an affidavit filed at the Milimani Commercial Court in April, 2017.
Manchester Outfitters manufactures police uniforms. “I therefore entrusted the management to Pravin including signing of the balance sheet. The last balance sheet I signed was for the year 1993,” he said.
Mohan says that Pravin “registered a parallel company known as Manchester Outfitters East Africa Limited and used it to defraud my company.
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He fraudulently transferred my company property known as land reference number 24092 worth Sh800 million to his private company called Galot Holdings.
The land in question is situated along Mombasa Road and houses Manchester Outfitters East Africa Limited.”
Pravin, who attended a university in California, has denied the allegations and insists he owns the company.
Mohan says that in June 29, 2001, Pravin told the Kenya Police that Manchester Outfitters East Africa Limited was his company and not his uncle’s Manchester Outfitters that was to be paid a deposit for manufacturing police uniforms.
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“On July 20, 2001, Pravin Galot was charged with criminal case number 1047 of 2003 of intent to defraud by obtaining from Kariuki Mugwe, the chief accountant at Police headquarters, a sum of Sh12,859,050 as security to manufacture police uniforms.”
On learning that the police officers were looking for him, Pravin fled to England and his uncle settled the matter with the police, allowing Pravin to come back to Kenya.
Pravin was allowed back but a year later, Mohan realised that his nephew was still running Manchester Outfitters as Manchester Outfitters East Africa Ltd besides filing illegal parallel annual returns since 2007.
Mohan fired Pravin and filed a case in court to fight over the ownership and directorship of Manchester Outfitters.
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“Pravin Galot is not a director or shareholder of Galot Industries or any other company that I founded,” reads Mohan’s affidavit.
Separately, Pravin had accused his uncle of fraud, saying Mohan had fraudulently omitted his name as a company director and transferred prime property belonging to the Galot family business without his consent as a director.
Contacted by The Nairobian, Pravin Galot said his uncle was the fraudster. “I am even filing a case against him, to charge him with 27 counts of forgery. As for the CR12 certificates, I have had them for 25 years and if you go to the Registrar of Companies, you will find that I am the owner of the company.” This article first appeared in The Nairobian.
