The High Court in Nairobi has ordered that personal bank accounts registered in the names of the Chief Registrar of the Judiciary, Anne Atieno Amadi, as well as her son Brian Ochieng Amadi and two others be frozen and no withdrawals made without approval.
This after Ms. Amadi was sued alongside her son Brian and others by a Dubai-based company that deals with gold.
In the petition, Bruton Gold Trading LLC claims that the suspects, acting on behalf of the law firm Amadi and Associates Advocates, illegally obtained over Ksh.89 million for gold that they never supplied.
The Dubai company claims that it was interested in buying gold from Kenya and was introduced by one of the suspects, Daniel Ndegwa Kangara.
They alleged that after agreement between the parties, Kangara was to deliver gold which would then be exported to Dubai for sale.
It is their argument that Ksh.71 million was sent to Ms. Amadi’s law firm, but that no gold was ever exported from Kenya to Dubai.
In suing the Judiciary Registrar, they claim that investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) revealed that she is the registered proprietor of Amadi and Associates Advocates.
They also allege that the probe disclosed that the account where the money was deposited was also opened by Ms. Amadi after joining the Judiciary.
Further, they claim that the funds received by the firm were withdrawn in cash by Ms. Amadi’s son and two others without adequate documentation as required by the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act.
In the court papers, the Dubai firm alleges that Ms. Amadi later called them seeking to clear the sum within six months, to which they declined as there was no security performance on the part of defendants.
