Gambling firm MozzartBet is back in court as it seeks to overturn the forfeiture of Sh302 million to the government after the money was declared proceeds of crime.
MozzartBet argues in a notice of appeal that it risks losing the millions of shillings meant to procure some software to upgrade its gambling business.
The controversial firm had paid Sh256 million, which was part of the money seized and forfeited to the State, to purchase customised betting software.
But Justice Esther Maina in a ruling made last month said that the money which is held in three bank accounts was part of a money-laundering scheme supported by payments through M-Pesa accounts and should be forfeited to the State.
Maina’s decision followed a petition from the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA), which claimed that MozzartBet did not generate the money through its gambling business.
ARA found that the money was from unclear sources and was wired to a web of accounts owned by MozzartBet and to questionable firms with the directors and shareholders of the gambling firm which amounts to a money laundering syndicate.
MozzartBet is now appealing and begging for the suspension of the forfeiture until their appeal case is determined.
“Should its appeal succeed, the interested party (MozzartBet) will face serious, potentially insurmountable, hurdles recovering them, given, what is a matter of public notoriety, the process of recovering judgments against the government and its agencies,” MozzartBet said in the application.
But the Agency dismissed the gambler’s explanation that it paid the money to acquire from Kimaco Connections the software which Kimaco again subcontracted another firm — Open Skies Management Services —to deliver.
Kimaco Connections is owned by one Peter Kiilu who wired Sh242 million to Open Skies Management Services –another controversial firm owned by Emmanuel Charumbira, a Zimbabwean who is also shareholder of Mozzartbet.
Court documents show that MozzartBet used its pay bill number 290059 to wire the millions through another pay bill number 311372 belonging to Kimaco Connections.
The highest amount sent was Sh50 million in a single day while the lowest was Sh1.8 million but ARA in its findings said that MozzartBet sent a total Sh256 million within five days to Kimaco Connections pushing them to flag the money which was later transferred to an account at Co-operative Bank .
Mr Kiilu would later transfer Sh150 million from Co-op account to a fixed deposit account and left a balance of Sh101 million which was again wired to Pescom and Power Energy in transfers that were marked by intra-accounts trading.
ARA court documents show that the gamblers used mobile money transfer services for transactions between MozzartBet and Kimaco to evade the reporting threshold and Central Bank of Kenya prudential guidelines which require an account holder to declare the source of funds.
The Agency also told the court that the monies were later wired to various companies associated with directors and shareholders of the Mozzartbet including Loncar Koviljka, a Serbian, Zimbabwean Charumbira and Musa Sirma, a former MP.
Charumbira is the director of both MozzartBet Africa and Open Skies Connections which was sub-contracted to supply the software.
MozzartBet is arguing that the money was contributions from its shareholders and that it entered into a contract with Kimaco for the supply of IT software which has not been supplied since the funds were frozen.
But they failed to convince the court why they paid a third party to procure the software, from a sister company if the intention was to launder dirty money.
Justice Maina dismissed their claim saying the money was sent to Open Skies long before the contract was signed and the money ended in the pockets of the directors of MozzartBet.
Investigations by ARA also found out that the 1st respondent (Kimaco Connections) was a shell company that could not even pay rent for the premises it occupied.
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