Italian Investor Links Blue Marlin Resort To Forgery And Fraud

An Italian investor has told a Malindi court how documents were forged to dislodge him and his father from a property in Malindi. Bottini Matteo told the Malindi Environment and Lands Court judge Justice James Olola that he lost property at the Blue Marlin resort through fraud. Bottini, through his company Moorgate Investments Limited sued Romsard limited and Benter Carolyne Atieno alongside Ibrahim Abdi of forging documents to transfer his property. He said that the transfer of lease certificate to Romsard limited was irregular since it was not approved and ratified by him and his father who is also a director of Moorgate Investment limited. “I was in Italy when I received a call from our manager by the name Nicholas Ruwa who told me that there were people who approached him demanding the keys to apartments E1, E2, E,12, E18. I called him back and told him not to give them the keys and I further told him to conduct a search at the lands office where upon doing so he discovered that the property had been moved to Romsard limited,” he said. He added that a forged transfer agreement was also found and that Benter Atieno and Ibrahim Abdi had signed the agreement purporting to be directors of Moorgate Investments Limited. “We contacted our lawyers whom we instructed to put a caveat and the letters are here in court,” he said. He said that Benter and Ibrahim had secretly and unlawfully installed themselves as directors of Moorgate without involving the real directors. Matteo said he phoned Benter to inquire but her response was that there was nothing that had changed. “They wrongly used the power of attorney granted to them by my father Giancarlo but the power of attorney did not allow them to transact or sell the property on our behalf,” he said. He also said that Ibrahim further used the power of attorney to appoint himself a director without the resolution of the real directors and the board. Defense lawyer Maurice Kilonzo had insisted that Bottini had been invited at the meeting that resolved to install Ibrahim as a director but Botiini refuted the claims saying that he never received any letter. “I never received any letter dated 15 July 2015 saying that there was a meeting. I only saw it in court,” he added. Judge James Olola questioned why the purported letter had no date of the meeting and the venue. Oscar Otieno Owino who represented the registrar of companies told the court that the only records at the registry were those of Moorgate Investments limited which had actively been filing returns since 2012. He denied knowledge of Benter Carolyne Otieno and Ibrahim Athman as being directors of Moorgate Investments limited. He also said that a letter purporting to be of notification of change of directors of Moorgate dated December 2015 and which placed Carolyne and Ibrahim as directors did not originate from the registrar of companies and was a forged document. “Resolutions dated 2 nd October 2015 were never filed with the Registrar of Companies and the changes were never effected and the letter and returns in 2015 did not originate from our office and the same were a forgery,” he told court during cross examination. He added that there was no director by the name Ibrahim Athman or secretary as Margaret Cheptuiyo. Moorgate had discovered that Carolyne and Ibrahim posing as its directors unlawfully transferred apartment E1, E2, E12 and E18 to Romsard for a sum of Sh. 18 million. In the suit, Romsard is accused of accepting a sub lease for E1, E2,E12 and E18 at a sum below market price and lodging the sub lease dated 16 th October 2015 for registration without confirming the directors who had executed the same were in fact the real directors of Moorgate Investments limited. Romsard is also accused of colluding with Carolyne and Ibrahim to unlawfully deprive Moorgate Investment Limited of its interests in the title of the suit apartments. Judge James Otieno Olola set the next hearing date on 18 th Match 2019. Ends… Bottini Mateo and advocate Maurice Kilonzo in court.