A Kenyan businessman and his wife on Tuesday moved to court in a bid to safeguard their huge deposits confined at the collapsed Imperial Bank.
Mombasa tycoon Ashok L Doshi, had reportedly stashed in the troubled lender Sh1 Billion in US dollars and Kenyan currency as of October 2015, which he now can't access.
In an urgent application at the Mombasa High Court, the businessman alleged that the Central Bank of Kenya was intending to trade with his money and turn it into equity, yet it had no right to change their contract with Imperial Bank in spite of the receivership.
The Ashoks now wan't the CBK and Imperial Banks restrained from investing or transferring the colossal amount to the Kenya Commercial Bank and DTB or the Kenya Insurance Deposit Corporation (KIDC) pending the hearing and determination of the application.
Instead, the couple says their fortune should be deposited into a temporary or escrow account of a billion shillings held jointly by them and their advocates, pending the determination of the application.
Ashok, who has vast interests in the steel industry in Mombasa, has also expressed his displeasure with a move by CBK to pay up to Sh1 Million to depositors of the collapsed bank.
The wealthy couple maintains that money that was in the bank when the financial crisis came knocking was sufficient to pay all depositors, adding that the court should order the CBK and Imperial to submit in court published and approved financial statements for 2014 and 2015.
“We want the two banks to file in court report of the finding of Financial Forensic Technology International Limited (FTI) Consulting LLP London and their own investigations finding so far pending hearing and determination of this suit,” said the Couple's lawyer Francis Kadima.
Mr Doshi and his wife Amit A Doshi, who are in London expressed that they needed the money for their retirement with the lawyer noting that the man is at the moment ailing.
Commercial Judge P J Otieno set the case for hearing on May 2, 2016.
The Ashoks are among the over 5000 depositors who were left stranded after the Imperial Bank plunged into a financial crisis and was placed under receivership, following fraudulent dealings that siphoned billions out of the lender.
