Appeals Court on Monday allowed a Dubai-based company to challenge the decision of the High Court to unfreeze the accounts of Judiciary Registrar Anne Amadi.
In a statement dated Monday, September 4, the Court of Appeal confirmed that the case, an application from Bruton Gold Trading LLC filed on August 29, had been certified urgent.
"I have been directed to inform you that the application dated August 29, 2023, has been certified as urgent by the duty judge. I have been directed to inform you that this application will be heard by a three-judge bench constituted by Hon. President of the Court of Appeal," read the statement addressed to counsels.
"The application will be heard by way of Gotomeeting videolink connected to the Court and Counsel on record."
Bruton Gold Trading LLC had moved to the Court of Appeal to challenge a ruling that lifted the freeze on bank accounts held by Amadi, her son Brian Ochieng Amadi, and their law firm Amadi and Associates Advocates.
The Chief Judiciary Registrar had been roped into Ksh102 million Dubai gold fraud case after a law firm linked to her received the money in dollars from the Dubai company.
In court filings made by Lawyer Joseph Murage on behalf of Bruton Gold Trading LLC, the firm argued that the respondents, including Amadi, orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to obtain money from its partners.
"The Applicant filed a Suit at the High Court of Kenya contemporaneously with an application seeking to preserve the accounts of the firm and the respondents and prevent them from removing funds from the jurisdiction (reach of the Court) which Orders were granted by Hon. Majanja J. on 18th May 2023 before Hon. Mabeya J. lifted the said Orders on 9th June 2023 in his ruling which is the subject of the intended Appeal," read the suit in part.
In May, shortly after the firm filed a suit at the High Court, Amadi's accounts were frozen pending a determination of the then suit.
Soon after, the Chief Judiciary Registrar issued a statement distancing herself from the claims arguing that she had already left the firm in 2014.
"I confirm that no such sums relating to the impugned transaction were ever deposited to my personal bank accounts, and the petitioner has failed to tender any evidence that I was a beneficiary of the alleged fraud," she countered at the time.
"No evidence has been tendered in support of the general allegations that I have fraudulently benefitted from the alleged undelivered gold consignment."
In mid-June, the Court, however, unfroze Amadi's bank accounts. In his ruling, Justice Alfred Mabeya ruled that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that Amadi benefitted from an alleged Ksh102 million gold scam.
While citing an affidavit filed by Amadi, the court also determined that the registrar was not involved in the day-to-day running of her law firm - allegedly tasked with supplying gold to a Dubai firm.
