A mother, a son and a gold scandal: The case of Chief Judiciary Registrar Anne Amadi

A court has frozen the bank accounts of Chief Justice Anne Amadi and a law firm registered in her name at the center of a gold scandal case in which a British national claims he was defrauded of more than Sh100m. in US dollars in 2021.

Bruton Gold Trading LLC, a Dubai-registered gold trading company, has filed a lawsuit against Ms Amadi, along with her son Brian Ochieng, two other Kenyans and a Liberian national, which it claims lost $742,206 between September 22 and October 21, 2021.

According to an affidavit from the dealer, Mr. Demetrius Bradshaw, the money was intended for the purchase of 1,500 kilograms of gold bars, but the precious metal was never delivered to the buyer in Dubai.

The other defendants in the case are Andrew Njinga Kyari, Kikana Toputi, Daniel Ndegwa Kangara, alias Daniel Morethi, and Edward Taylor alias Mburunda Senkulo Sakor, who is a holder of a Liberian passport.

Mr Ochieng (Amadi’s son), Mr Kiarie and Mr Topoti are solicitors at the law firm Amadi and Associates, while Mr Kangara represented a company called Universal Gold Logistics Limited (UGL) and Mr Sakur was said to have been the seller of the gold.

Supreme Court Justice David Maganga on Thursday certified the case as urgent and froze several bank accounts belonging to Ms Amadi and the law firm Amadi & Associates Advocates, pending a ruling on the case.

“Pending the hearing and determination of the application here, the Honorable Court is pleased to order the account numbers *** held at Bank ABC, Green House Mall, Nairobi, in the name of Amadi & Associates, Advocates (and any other bank account registered or owned by Amadi & Associates), and no money should ever be withdrawn from the accounts without an express court order.”

In his affidavit, Bradshaw says that in September 2021, he entered into a deal with Mr Taylor and paid the money to UGL through Amadi and Associates, who were its legal representatives. Then Mr. Kangara sent him documents indicating that the gold had been exported and would soon arrive in Dubai. He was given the flight number and the shipment.

However, when he checked with the airline, he was told that no such shipment had ever been sent on the flight. When he checks with Kangara and Sakura, they tell him that the gold was taken off the plane because there were some payments not made. Then he made the payments and they assured him that about 200 kilograms of gold would be exported on October 22, 2021.

investigation

However, says Bradshaw, no gold was ever exported.

Mr. Sakur then informed him that a court order had been issued preventing the gold from being transferred to him.

Mr Bradshaw later learned that the action had in fact been filed by an advocate of the same firm, but had subsequently been withdrawn and that the order sent to him was different from the actual order given by the court.

Then he filed a complaint with the police, who investigated the matter. Investigations showed that the money deposited was withdrawn by Mr. Ochieng and one of his partners in the law firm, Mr. Kiarie.

Mr Bradshaw says in his suit that Ms Amadi and the three defenders, on behalf of the company and in their personal capacity, along with Mr Kangara and Mr Taylor, illegally obtained the funds from him and want them to compel them to return the money together with interest and the cost of the action.

He says that the account into which the money was paid was opened by Ms. Amadi. In support of this, I enclose a letter written by Mrs. Amadi to the Bank requesting the opening of accounts in US dollars and Kenyan shillings. In the letter to the bank dated June 9, 2020, referred to as the “Request to Open a Customer Account,” Ms. Amadi says: Refer to the aforementioned order and hereby request to open an attorney client account in your reputed banking institution. I have since left private practice and have therefore been exempted from obtaining a practicing certificate, however, I have hired Brian O. Amadi (ID number…) and Andrew Njinga Kyari (ID number…) as signatories to the said account…..we would like to open a Kenyan shillings account and an account in US dollars. Account authorization must be for both account signers to sign.

Also in the court documents is a letter from the Law Society of Kenya, dated March 7, 2022, which reads: “We confirm that according to our records, Kimani James Kinyangwe, Kyari Andrew Njenga, Kyote Dennis Mureithi and Amadi Brian Ochieng are declared partners in Amadi and Associates Advocates.

There is also a Certificate of Registration from Business Registration Services, dated August 23, 2022 which states that a law firm by the name of Amadi and Associates was registered November 9, 2012, and that its owner is Anne Atieno Amadi.

Mr Bradshaw states that investigations into the case revealed that the money received through the law firm was withdrawn in cash by Mr Ochieng and Mr Ndegwa.

“Simply put, the defendants here orchestrated a fraudulent scheme to obtain money from the plaintiff,” said his attorney, Morag Juma & Partners.

Bradshaw says that after learning the matter was under investigation, Mr. Oching called a meeting and committed to refunding the money on top of the losses incurred by the company. The law firm wrote a letter to the dealer’s attorney on May 10 of last year and sent two checks totaling $9,000 as a liability.

Mr Bradshaw’s lawyers accepted the checks on the account that the full amount would be refunded and asked for an offer to settle the balance.

In the suit, Mr Bradshaw claimed that in telephone conversations, Ms Amadi made proposals to clear the amount within six months, but this was rejected because there was no guarantee.

The case was heard immediately (meaning the defendants or their lawyers were not present) and the defendants have not yet come forward with a defence.

Judge Maganga directed the case to be recalled on May 23.

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