Embattled African Banking Corporation( ABC Bank) has bribed the Kenyan media to kill a story exposing how the money laundering bank is under the radar of the CBK over money laundering and fraud.
As of last week, efforts by some media houses to do the story were thwarted after bribes changed hands, nyakundireport.com can exclusively reveal.
African Banking Corporation (ABC) Group net profit for the year ended December 2018 slipped 41.71 percent.
Profit after taxation dropped to Sh67.87 million from Sh116.44 million the previous year, the lender reported in a statement on its website.
An insider that nyakundireport.com spoke to confirmed to us that bad loans and toxic loans dished out to friends, family members and cronies are threatening to bring down the once profitable group.
As reported four days ago by this site, ABC Bank has been put under a tight watch of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) over claims that it is a conduit of criminal activities.
Investigations by the editor of this site reveal that the African Banking Corporation (ABC) Limited has been undergoing CBK audits, stress checks and risk tests, putting questions into the dealings that the institution.
While sources at the Central Bank say the bank’s “questionable” practices are not a “copy-paste” of the Imperial Bank, which was put under receivership a few years ago, but to some degree, the activities of the two financial institutions resemble.
A confidential exchange on August 4, between the Central Bank of Kenya and the United States Government with the subject: Bank Fraud & Money Laundering in the East African names ABC as a Kenyan bank that should be investigated for money laundering.
It also states that ABC is used by a “notorious” gun runner, Victor Butt, to launder money as well as buy small arms from the unstable countries like Somalia, South Sudan and Pakistan. Pakistan, sources at the Banking Fraud Unit (BFU) intimate, the money came through ABC bank.
A confidential letter from the Scotland Yard to Central Bank and copied to the Banking Fraud Unit in January also urges BFU to investigate the “strong appetite” ABC bank has for the housing sector, particularly in Nairobi and the Kenyan coast, Mombasa.
The African Banking Corporation (ABC) Limited has in the last couple of months been undergoing CBK audits, stress checks and risk tests, putting the institution to question over its future survival. Sources at the Central Bank say the bank has “questionable” practices like Imperial Bank and to a small degree, the activities of the two financial institutions resemble.
At the centre of the CBK audits and tests were the bank’s liquidity position and it’s capital adequacy.
With such concern from the US government and CBK, the bank and some of its owners could actually be part of an international ring that launders money?
We request anyone with information pertaining to this bank to send to us using the contacts listed hereunder.