Attorney General Byaruhanga, Lawyer Kasirye Face Arrest Over Pocketing Shs1.6Bn In Dubious Court Compensation Deals

By Spy Uganda

The Attorney General William Byaruhanga and his colleague lawyer Andrew Kasirye, of Kasirye, Byaruhanga & Company Advocates, could find themselves behind bars any time from now, after the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) kicked investigations that the two and others at large were involved in fraudulent dealings with some officials of the judiciary.

According to documents by Director CID, AIGP Grace Akullo, the suspects are being investigated over allegations that they pocketed over Shs1.6Bn and another USD 48,000 from dubious court compensations, although by the time the fraud was detected, they had already wetted their bicks with Shs200,000,000 (two hundred millions).

One of the documents seen by Spy Uganda from the CID dated  July, 10, 2020, addressed to the Secretary to the Judiciary, Pius Bigirimana, reads in part thus;

“FRAUDULENT TRANSFER OF ALLEGED UGX1,681,471,042 FOR SECURITY REFUND VIDE HCT-OOC-No.8/2006 of 2017 TO THE ACCOUNT OF HEED DEBTS RECOVERY  SERVICES LTD

This Directorate is investigating allegations of alleged fraudulent transfer of Ugx1,681,471,042 from the accounts of the Judiciary to the accounts of M/S  HEED Debt Recovery Services Ltd No. 7255001733 held in ECO Bank Rwenzori Branch.

The amount was transferred by Bank of Uganda to the said account and by the time the fraud was detected the suspects had withdrawn UGx200,000,000.

The purpose of this letter is to request you to provide the following;

1. The requisition with its attachment (if any ) made to your office which led to the approval of the payment
2. Payment request to Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and other pay documents
3. A list of officials who handled the process and
4. Any other documents related to the case under investigation.

You are also required to make a statement in relation to the alleged fraudulent transfer.

D/ASP Twine Mansio Charles attached to this Directorate is assigned to handle this investigations will get in touch with you.”

In his reply to CID, Bigirimana, who is the Secretary to the Judiciary wrote thus;

“ALLEGED FRAUDULENT PAYMENTS OF SHS1,681,471,042 (ONE BILLIONS SIX HUNDRED EIGHTY ONE MILLION FOUR HUNDRED SEVENTY ONE THOUSAND FORTY TWO SHILLINGS)

I received communication from the Permanent Secretary/ Secretary to the Treasury informing me of a possible fraudulent payment of SHS1,681,471,042 to Heed Debt Recovery. This payment was made on recommendations made by the following;

i)H/W Dr. Agnes Nkonge-She issued a Court Order directing the payment on 4^th June 2020.

1. ii) H/W Mary Ikit requisitioned the payment and attached a receipt dated 26/01/2020 to confirm that the payment was genuine.

Coupled with the above is another payment which was made to Kasirye, Byaruhanga and Co. Advocates in favour of Entebbe Handling Services of USD48,294,26.

The Payment was again originated by a Court Order signed by H/W Dr Agnes Nkonge. The requisition was originally made by H/W Tom Chemutai and later by H/W Mary Ikit on 16^th January 2020.

I shall appreciate if you investigated these two payments to establish whether actually they were fraudulently requisitioned or are genuine.”

However, by the time of filing this story, our reporters were working frantically to either get AG Byaruhanga or Counsel Kasirye for a comment about the matter, although efforts to get to them through their phone contacts were still futile.

Watch this space for details about this scandal.