Court freezes woman's account with Sh115 million over suspicion of money laundering

ARA flagged Sh115 million deposited in the woman’s account. [iStockphoto]

A state agency has flagged more than Sh115 million deposited in a woman’s account under mysterious circumstances.

The Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) yesterday obtained a court order freezing Isabel Wanjohi’s account holding money, which she allegedly intended to transfer to South Africa without declaring the source.

“We suspect that Wanjohi who works at Platinum Credit Limited is being used by fraudsters as a conduit for money laundering in which they use her account to deposit cash in dollars and hurriedly transfer the money to other accounts in South Africa,” said ARA lawyer Jennifer Gitiri.

ARA claimed that they received intelligence information that Ms Wanjohi was engaged in money laundering and upon investigation discovered that her account at Standard Chartered Bank received the suspicious amount deposited on a single day.

The agency’s investigator Sautet Matipei in his affidavit swore that the money was deposited on April 13 and when asked about the source, Ms Wanjohi said it was a loan from another micro-finance institution.

“She told investigators that the amount was an unsecured loan she took from Platcorps Holdings Limited but she did not explain the purpose for the loan which made us believe they are proceeds of organised crime and money laundering,” swore Matipei.

According to ARA, Platcorps Holdings Limited is another micro-finance lender which provides credit to private individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises and has no capacity to lend an individual Sh115 million without security for the funds.

Matipei added that the woman produced an alleged loan agreement between herself and Platcorps Holdings Limited but it had discrepancies, including lack of signatures and witnesses.

The agency added that since Ms Wanjohi is an employee of a micro-finance institution, she is colluding with other people who use her accounts to launder money whose sources are not known.

Justice Esther Maina ruled that there is imminent danger of the amount being transferred to South Africa and issued the freezing order.

“The total amount of $1 million (Sh115 million) should be immediately transferred to the Asset Recovery Agency accounts and be preserved until determination of the suit,” ruled Maina.

The judge directed ARA to serve Wanjohi and for her to respond within 21 days.