Chief Registrar of the Judiciary Anne Amadi has termed the accusations being levelled against her by a Dubai-based firm in an alleged fake gold syndicate as malicious.
Speaking to the Star, Amadi said the reports are untrue and she will be defending herself in court to set the record straight.
"There is no truth in it. I will defend myself in court once I'm served with the papers. I will also be suing for defamation," she said.
On Thursday, Milimani Commercial judge David Majanja froze personal bank accounts belonging to Amadi and her son, Brian Ochieng Amadi.
Majanja made the orders following a suit filed by Bruton Gold Trading LLC. Bruton is a gold trading company based in Dubai.
It was interested in buying gold from Kenya.
On Thursday, it told the court how fake documentation was procured in an attempt to mislead them that they were committing to a genuine transaction.
A tracking number was also provided by the parties involved to prove that the consignment of gold had left Kenya aboard a Kenya Airways Flight to Dubai.
In their court documents, Bruton has detailed how Amadi, her son Brian and five others allegedly conspired to fraudulently obtain more than Sh100 million from them.
The company claims they illegally obtained $742,206 (Sh103 million) on the pretence they would deliver 1,500kg of gold bars.
Amadi has been accused of working in cahoots with her son, who is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and two other advocates working at her law firm on the alleged fraudulent commercial activity.
The two are Andrew Njenga Kiarie and Kikanae Adrian Topoti. The company has also named one Daniel Ndegwa Kangara and Edward Taylor alias Mboronda Sakor, a Liberian national.
Taylor was the gold vendor in this whole transaction and Kangara the alleged exporter.
Majanja, who certified the matter as urgent, also froze two bank accounts domiciled at the African Banking Corporation (ABC) Bank, Green House Mall, Nairobi, in the name of Amadi and Associate Advocates.
The orders will remain in force pending the hearing and determination of the application filed by Bruton.
The judge directed that the application be served to the defendants with a mention date fixed on 23 May for directions.
Bruton's directors, according to court documents, were introduced by Taylor to one Daniel Ndegwa Kangara (alias Dan Muriithi), who at the time it was alleged was an officer in an entity identified as Universal Global Logistics (UGL) Limited.
UGL was in the gold export business. It said it could export gold from Kenya to Dubai.
Bruton says the agreement between the parties was that Kangara was to deliver gold for export (in Kenya), which would be exported by the Liberian to Dubai for sale.
The cost was to be covered by Bruton.
An agreement was subsequently entered into between the Dubai firm and UGL. UGL was represented by Amadi's law firm for the export of the 1,500kg gold bars allegedly owned by the Liberian and his family from Kenya to Dubai.
Bruton consequently sent $592,970 (Sh81.5 million) to Amadi's law firm account at African Banking Corporation Limited (7th defendant in the suit). The monies were dispatched in tranches between September 22, 2021 and October 21 2021.
It was withdrawn in cash by Amadi's son Brian, and Kiarie from ABC Bank.
The company at the same time also sent $149,236 (Sh20.5 million) to the Liberians account for purposes of accommodation and other miscellaneous transaction costs.
Some of the documents which were later established to be fake were a mineral export permit, an ICGLR regional certificate origin being Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) among others.
When Bruton discovered that the tracking number, which was to show that the consignment of gold had left Kenya was amiss, Kangara and Taylor told them that the gold had been taken off the plane as there were some further payments to be made.
"After inducing us to make the payments, Taylor being the gold vendor and Kangara purporting to act as an officer of UGL informed us that the gold would be exported on October 22, 2021," Bruton says.
But the shipment never arrived. Bruton then inquired why he had not received his consignment.
He was told by Taylor that a suit had been filed against them by one Rufus Yah and orders had been issued.
Bruton did its due diligence and established the case was filed by Amadi's law firm.
One Rufus Yah was the plaintiff and Bruton was named as the defendant.
But the company, in court documents says Rufus cannot be found to date and that the matter was withdrawn.
Bruton subsequently filed a complaint at Kiambu police station, which led to the arrest of Kangara, the alleged gold exporter.
It says other arrests are about to be effected. What followed was a meeting requested by Amadi's son on May 10, 2022.
He and Kiarie are said to have requested to meet Bruton's advocates during which they admitted to withdrawing the monies in question and 'disbursing it to their alleged accomplices'.
"At the conclusion of the meeting, the resultant resolution was that Brian and Kiarie acknowledged their liability and undertook to come up with a proposal to return the monies which we were fraudulently induced to pay and additional losses amounting to $742,206," Bruton says.
Amadi's law firm later paid $9000 as a commitment towards resolving the matter.
The company says Amadi's conduct is wanting and the court should issue an order directed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to investigate her and thereafter sanction her for her actions in relation to the suit before the court.
Together with her son and the other two advocates, they have been accused of manufacturing and uttering fake government documents, obtaining money by false pretence and facilitating the preparation of a forged court order.
