SLCB and FIB Fraudsters Remanded in Prisons By Michael T. Kamara Magistrate Komba Kamanda of court No 2 has on Wednesday 3rd July 2013 remanded in Pademba Road Prisons Solomon Kabba Kalu a business man, Festus Crispin, John Benjamin Sankoh, Festus A. Jones Director at SLBC, Salieu Mohamed Barie, Yakuba Kargbo, Daniel, Denis Matia, Patrick Saidu Conteh Deputy Managing director of Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) and Chris Bishop Deigh Managing Director of SLCB whom are all seniors managers and directors at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and the First International bank (FIB) on seven count charged of allegedly defrauding monies of the SLCB, the FIB and the country in a whole. In another separate file sonme of these accused persons and Chief Tony were also remanded in prisons for alleged defrauding FIB. All the accused persons were standing on seven counts charges ranging from Conspiracy to Defraud, Obtaining the Acceptance of Document which is fraud, Failure to Report Fraud matter and Issuing the Cheque against insufficient money in an account. The particulars of offence stated that, Solomon Kabba Kalu a business man, Festus Crispin, John Benjamin Sankoh, Festus A. Jones Director at SLBC, Salieu Mohamed Barie, Yakuba Kargbo, Daniel, Denis Matia, Patrick Saidu Conteh Deputy Managing director of Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) and Chris Bishop Deigh Managing Director of SLCB on a date ‘between’ 3rd April and 20th May this year in the Freetown Judicial District in the Republic of Sierra Leone conspired together with other persons unknown to defraud the sum of 21.11 billion leones from SLCB in count one, the particulars of count two stated that the bank managers of SLCB obtained the acceptance of a cheques of le 78, 400, 000, the particulars of count three says that, all the accused persons issued the cheque of 85 billion leones when the first accused Kabba Kalu did not have such money in his account, the particulars of count four says that, another cheque of 65 billion leones was issued to Ecobank, the particulars of count six stated that, the accused issued a cheque of le 79, 629, 000 at SLCB and the partculars of count seven noted that, all the accused persons conspired to defraud le 821, 019, 000 from both SLCB and Ecobank. The matter was prosecuted by the Acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Sulaiman Bah, and Principal state Prosecutor Gerald J. Soyie, while the defense team was packed with a high power of legal practitioners under mentioned, C. F. Edwards, Ibrahim S. Yilla, M. S. Bangura, Sulaiman K. Koroma, R. A. Nailender, Julius Kofi, Glenna Thompson, S. Katta, U. Koroma,J. E. Kabbie, E. Koroma, C. Walker, Tejan Jah, Juliana Williams, James Fonah Sesay, Barnard Jones amongst other Lawyers. Applying for and on behalf of all the accused person, Lawyer Ibrahim Sorie Yilla cited that his application was made pursuant to section 79n of the Criminal Procedure Act and that the charges against the accused person are serious but are all mere allegations. He said remanding the accused in custody should not be used as a means of punishment. He noted that all the accused persons are respectable Sierra Leonean whom are residents of the country, and that their clients have responsible sureties to stand on their behalf. He revealed that there is no compensation for an accused that are found not guilty after trial, so on those grounds he hugged the court to puts the accused on bail. Responding to the defense Lawyer, State Prosecutor, Gerald J. Soyie objected to bail on the grounds that the monies involve are huge, and that the nature of the offences charged are serious. He said that if compensation were been given to accused then fraud matters will be rampant in the country. He hugged the magistrate for his discretion to be amount to a punishment. Having listening to both the prosecution and the defense teams, Magistrate Kamanda said the nature of the offence is serious that he will not give bail to the accused persons. He therefore remanded all the accused persons in Pademba Road prisons and adjourned the matter to Tuesday 9th july 2013
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 09:40:34 +0000
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