The Assets Recovery Agency has filed an application in court seeking to have Sh7.3 million held by one of the beneficiaries in the National Youth scandal forfeited to the state.
The application for forfeiture is premised on the investigations conducted by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations into the theft and fraud of public funds amounting to Sh467 million from the National Youth Service, a state department in the Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender.
The probe revealed massive fraud and embezzlement of public funds perpetrated by public officials and private persons, some of whom have been charged with various offences at the Anti-corruption court.
The beneficiary—James Thuita Nderitu—is among those charged in court.
The anti-corruption court had on June 22 frozen bank accounts of three entities belonging Thuita. The accounts are held in the names of Active Electronics Africa Limited, First Supplies and Ameritrade Limited.
The agency in its fresh application now seeks to have the court issue an order declaring that Sh7.3 million held at Standard Chartered and Equity Bank are proceeds of crime.
They also want the monies forfeited to the state and transferred to the agency.
ARA says the entities owned and associated with Thuita were used to embezzle funds from the coffers of the National Youth Service.
“On 26 April 2018, we received information that there were funds held at Equity and Standard Chartered banks which funds were suspected to be proceeds of crime. The said bank accounts received suspicious huge deposits from the coffers of the National,” the agency said.
In an affidavit, Isaac Nakitare a police officer attached to ARA says further investigations established that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the cash in question is part of the funds stolen from NYS.
“From the investigations, the source of the funds was illegal and being suspected to be part of the funds stolen from the National Youth Service and therefore proceeds of crime liable to be forfeited to the agency on behalf of the state,” he says.
-Edited by SKanyara
