The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has flagged Betting firm MozzartBet over suspicious transactions amounting to Sh640 million that the betting firm wired to Kimaco Connections between February and August.
The betting firm is in the spotlight after the State agency questioned the millions the company had wired to a businessman’s bank accounts in a span of five months.
The agency believes the money was not generated from gambling activities under MozzartBet, which operates in a sector that has recently come under increased scrutiny from the goovernment with Sportpesa getting the most heat.
The ARA now seeks to have the cash forfeited to the State. The agency has therefore dismissed MozzartBet’s shady explanation.
Mozzart argues that it paid the money to acquire from Kimaco Connections a software, which the latter subcontracted another firm called Open Skies Management Services, to deliver.
The owner of Kimaco Connections, one Peter Kiilu allegedly wired Sh242 million to Open Skies Management Services, which is owned by Zimbabwean Emmanuel Charumbira and a shareholder of Mozzartbet.
“That Mr Peter Kiilu did not avail the agreement or contracts he alluded to in his recorded statement between Mozzartbet Kenya Ltd and Kimaco Connections and Kimaco Connections and Open Skies Management Services,” the ARA states in court documents.
“Preliminary investigations have established that the respondents through its directors, representatives or agents were involved in a complex scheme of money laundering activities involving several entities and companies,” said Stephen Githinji, a prosecutor attached to ARA.
ARA says that the money were later distributed to various companies associated with directors and shareholders of the betting firm saying that after investigations, they concluded that shareholders of MozzartBet Kenya Ltd are Loncar Koviljka, a Serbian, Zimbabwean Charumbira and Musa Sirma, a former MP.
This adds MozzartBet to th list of wanted financial institutions such as casinos, real estate agencies and consulting accounting firms that are under special scrutiny over suspect transactions by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB).
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