The Banking Fraud Unit is investigating a case where Kenya’s second largest lender, Equity Bank, lost KSh 1.5 billion last month to an insider and his father.
- The stolen money, which was meant for employees’ salaries, was transferred to multiple accounts in other banks in 47 transactions, with no corresponding credits on Equity’s ledger.
- The transactions triggered internal controls, with the lender reporting the heist to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit once it established that they had been authorised using a manager’s credentials, The Daily Nation reported on Thursday.
- BFU then arrested the manager, David Machiri Kimani, 39, who was on leave at the time of the heist, and his father, Joseph Kimani Machiri, and asked the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Milimani to detain the former for 21 days to finalise investigations.
According to the report, most of the money was moved through newly created accounts registered in the names of newly registered businesses. Investigators believe Kimani Machiri, a founding member of the Murang’a county assembly, was his son’s accomplice.
Equity Group, which posted a 12.5 percent growth in profit after tax in the first half of 2024, has had several incidences of stolen funds in its bank subsidiaries. In mid-April this year, hackers stole US$ 2 million from the bank in a debit card fraud. The DCI arrested 20 suspects in connection with the heist.
Around the same time, Ugandan police arrested a former executive and three agency banking operators while investigating a $16mn stock loans and agent float financing fraud. The case had already seen at least four former employees charged in a Kampala court for money laundering, conspiracy to defraud, and obtaining credit by false pretence.
In 2021, a Kigali court sentenced eight Kenyans and a Ugandan to eight years imprisonment for hacking Equity Bank in 2019. The hacker group routinely used insiders and in-country account owners to penetrate the lender’s systems and move their loot.
