For a couple of days, there has been string of reports on property mogul Mr. Sudhir Ruparelia and how he acquired loans from his own bank Crane Bank before it was sold off to DFCU by the Central Bank claiming it was grossly insolvent.
The authors have since quoted a forensic audit conducted by PWC audit firm on defunct Crane Bank.
Bank of Uganda, as a regulator averred that Crane Bank required shs 179 billion for recapitalization. But it later emerged that the Central Bank injected in over shs 478billion before selling it off.
Parliament of Uganda which has been investigating Bank of Uganda has since directed the Auditor General to investigate such claim.
As Parliament conducted its investigations on Bank of Uganda, reports later emerged how Sudhir had formed private companies which he used to borrow loans from his own bank.
Literally these reports which circulated massively on social media suggested that Sudhir illegally offered loans to himself.
However, experts have analyzed the reports, pointed out the inaccuracies and concluded that the stories are misleading and untrue.
Further the experts think the reports are exaggerated for personal reasons.
Below we produce the experts’ take on claims of ‘inside trading’ at Crane Bank.
What are the specific details of these transactions; dates, amounts, companies, proof the he owns the companies.
Sudhir and Crane Bank Loans
You expect the Auditor Generals report to have facts if it’s a real report, many times when we have these facts they act as evidence and we present them to the public. Whereas the authors claim that there is evidence presented in court, if so why couldn’t they post court documents since they are public documents unless deemed not fit.
If true, what was the role of Bank of Uganda, loans are reviewed by BOU supervisory team, where was it when such activity was taking place if it happened anyway?
Reports allege that Sudhir gave himself loans half the core of the bank Capital, but it quite embarrassing to give such a specific detail and you only mention 9.5 billion shillings moreover without proof that Sudhir owns these companies.
If true that 9.5billion was borrowed it was BoU’s own confession that Sudhir raised shs 20 billion only when told to recapitalize. Doesn’t this raise serious questions of whether the author is not informed or just making misguided allegations as a hired goon.
Reports further gave companies owned by former employees of Crane as evidence of insider trading, we wait to see if the law interprets these companies as owned by Sudhir based on the past relationship of their owners.
Several assertions are made that Crane Bank went below the capital requirements simply because President Museveni withdrew money from it, this most recent allegation contradicts the previous one.
Who is therefore paying for these posts and of what interest.
DFCU Rent Arrears
DFCU has accumulated unpaid rent dues a case that is being handled by the Commercial court. This case arises from a fact that another Sudhir company owns buildings that house former Crane bank branches this therefore means DFCU who is occupying these buildings must pay rent, mafias in DFCU and their lawyers want to assume ownership of these buildings, by so doing they have taken the route of threatening to cause a criminal prosecution against Sudhir if he continues to demand payment, they know it will not be easy so they think by going public this will keep the rich man away for a while as they exploit him.
Fraud Case
Reports again indicate that Sudhir is battling fraud cases in the commercial court, but there is no existing fraud case in a commercial court.
Fraud is a criminal matter handled in criminal courts, what is in the commercial court is Sudhir’s case against BoU and DFCU over their refusal to pay rent, and what he calls illegal take over of his Bank by Both DFCU and BOU.
It appears people are missing the important elements in this case, Crane Bank needed 157 billion, in two weeks Sudhir raise 20 billion and asked BoU to borrow him the remaining.
In the process of asking for a Loan from BoU which would come with interest hence a benefit to the nation, Sudhir handed over titles of his personal businesses since he was the guarantor of this loan.
BoU employees had other plans which included selling the bank to someone else at individual profit and using the situation to further steal from BOU and Sudhir.