Bank fraud in foreign Banks frustrating the development and Prosperity of our motherland Uganda
Banks are now the Major reason why Uganda is failing
Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) is in a spot of bother. The bank has been hit by a huge scandal in which one of its loyal customers accuses the institution of theft. The customer (names withheld) has sued the bank for allegedly draining a total of about Ugx 100billion from an account the customer has with the bank. In a case filed before the commercial court, the customer says the money was withdrawn without his knowledge or consent.
The unauthorized withdraw from the customer’s account happened over a period of time in phases, a small amount at a time. The customer only detected when it was too late.
The scandal has sparked fear and panic within the bank as the scandal could put DTB to ashes. It exposes the bank as an untrustworthy financial partner that siphons money from its own customers rather than safeguard it.
Not the first Time
It is not the first time DTB is mentioned in a case of fraud. In 2016 one of its own bank managers (Malaba Branch, Eastern Uganda) locked staffers in a room and took off with shs 345 million.
Last year (2019) the police arrested two DTB employees on allegations of stealing Shs 700 million from several clients’ deposits. The two were; Daniel Kirumira Kalinda and Christine Namazzi.
Police spokesperson Patrick Onyango said then that Kalinda was arrested for defrauding the clients of DTB through transfers to Namazzi account. Kalinda was withdrawing money from different accounts and sending the money to Namazzi’s account.
In neighboring Kenya, a DTB Branch Manager named Peter Sungu Nyakomitta, was arrested last year and arraigned in Milimani Law Courts for stealing Ksh.25Million from customer’s fixed account numbers. The theft was discovered after an internal reconciliation process that was done.
Earlier in 2018, the bank was on the spot after one branch manager in Kenya was accused of illegally withdrawing Ksh 150 million from fixed accounts belonging to Daehan Pharmaceuticals Ltd and one of its chairperson Lim Sun Pil.
A couple in Uganda Francis Nekuusa and his wife Stella Nekuusa sued DTB in 2017 for crediting their account with a huge sum of money, then later claiming that it was a loan. The bank sued the couple of failing to pay 10bn loan, a move the couple registered as a case of fraud by the bank.
Leaking Client Confidential Information
In 2018, a staffer at DTB leaked confidential bank details of Justine Bagyenda, the former executive director of supervision at the Bank of Uganda. The leaked bank account details of Bagyenda, showed how she allegedly over the years made several fixed deposits at the bank, making billions of profits in the process. DTB confessed that one of its own staff had been compromised to access Bagyenda’s account in the bank’s system hence leaking the confidential details to outsiders, information that was used against Bagyenda.
Bank of Uganda Negligent
By siphoning money from customers’ accounts, DTB violates the Consumer Protection Guidelines (FCPGs) that were issued by the Bank of Uganda (BOU) to protect the interests of a bank customer.
BOU which is mandated to regulate and discipline banks in Uganda has not performed as expected on its role to reign in on unauthorized theft of customers’ money by banks. BOU remains silent on repeated cases of fraud by DTB.
BOU might take aeons to clean the mess at DTB, but the bank will obviously be injured by the rot as customers will find it hard to save and transact with the bank.
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