Former National Social Security Fund (NSSF) investment manager Francis Zuriel Moturi has been fined more than KShs. 2bn after the High Court threw out his appeal against a ruling by a lower court.
- •Moturi and three others, all from the now collapsed Discount Securities Limited, were charged with conspiracy to defraud, and deceiving principal in a case that has lasted close to two decades.
- •While Moturi’s co-accused were sentenced to pay fines of Kshs. 1mn and two years in prison and KShs. 800mn, he was fined KShs. 1 million and KShs. 2.4bn.
- •Discount Securities served as NSSF’s stockbrokers in the mid-2000s before it collapsed in 2008.
Prosecutors said that while investment manager, Moturi wrote several memos to the Managing Trustee of NSSF where he said that Discount Securities Ltd, the fund’s stockbroker at the time, had bought shares in several blue chip companies including KCB, Standard Chartered and Nation Media Group, which turned out to be untrue.
In addition to Moturi, others charged include David Murungu, Executive Director of Discount Securities Limited (DSL); Isaac Nyakundi Nyamongo, Finance Manager DSL; and Wilfred Munyoro Weru, Investments Manager DSL.
DSL was estimated to have over KShs. 1bn when it collapsed, in a wave of collapses in the investment sector that also included Nyaga Stockbrokers and Francis Thuo and Company. The NSSF had used DSL as a stockbroker, and paid KShs. 1.4 bn before it was discovered that it had not bought any shares in the Nairobi bourse.
“Justice Sifuna also ruled that the sentences imposed were neither unreasonable, excessive, harsh, nor illegal,” the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) said in a statement.
“He also found that he threw his employer under the bus, betrayed the public trust and cheated pensioners who are a significant and vulnerable segment of the society,” the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement on the long-running case, “EACC finds this case significant for two reasons. One, the colossal amount of tax payers’ money stolen from the Fund in breach of public trust. Secondly, the deterrent nature of the conviction meted out by the Magistrates Court.”
