The Financial Intelligence Authority has said it completed its investigations into allegations of money laundering by the former Executive Director in supervision at Bank of Uganda, Justine Bagyenda.
FIA says it has handed the findings to the Inspector General of Government (IGG) and the police for further action.
“On Friday we finished our report as we had promised so the report is in the hands of the police and IGG,” said FIA’s Executive Director Sydney Asubo.
Asubo disclosed the latest development to the media yesterday in Kampala as he addressed journalists at the sidelines of the Correspondent Banking Academy Workshop held at Sheraton Kampala Hotel on Wednesday via a partnership between the FIA and Standard Chartered Bank.
Participants at the workshop discussed money laundering and sanctions as well as counter terrorism financing, among other topics.
Baggyenda was sitting on the board of the FIA headed by former BOU Governor Leo Kibirango as Chairman. Her contract is said to have ended but recently it was reported she was waiting to be reappointed to the board for the second term.
Recent leaked bank documents of which Eagle Online has copies, show that Bagyenda had up to Shs20 billion on various bank accounts, which led to the countrywide call for an investigation into her wealth.
For instance, Bagyenda’s dollar account indicates that on May 19, 2014, she deposited US$20,000 (about Shs76 million at the current exchange rate) on her account.
She deposited a similar amount (US$20,000) on December 19, 2014.
Apart from the cash deposits, sometimes Bagyenda received funds from her other accounts. For example on January 20, 2014, she received US$20,000 from her Standard Chartered account. On August 5, 2015, she received US$30,000 from an undisclosed source.
The leaked documents show that much as Bagyenda’s bank balances reflected zero shillings on most accounts, she was depositing her cash elsewhere. However, most of Bagyenda’s unexplained source of money would immediately go her fixed deposit accounts in DTB after landing on her savings accounts.
As of December 2017, She had fixed US$214,149 (Shs814 million) on a dollar account and Shs436 million on a shillings account in Diamond Trust Bank.
Documents also show she has another Shs2.4 billion on a GT bank account.
Probably as a way of avoiding scrutiny of her savings account she paid part of the money was to a prominent Kampala law firm. And by September 2017, the law firm had received Shs850 million from Bagyenda in lump sums ranging from Shs350 million and Shs100 million at a single transaction!
Bagyenda’s Barclays Bank account also shows that she was sending colossal sums to a certain gentleman.
Her Barclays account shows a consistent figure of about Shs10.5 million that was deposited on either the 22nd or 23rd of every month from BOU. She was also receiving Shs700, 000 from the Micro Finance Support Centre where she chaired the board according to her accounts.
The banks were she kept the money admitted and apologised Bagyenda for the leaked documents that exposed her bank details. They include Diamond Trust Bank and Barclays Bank that promised to punish the whistle blowers.
Bagyenda is also believed to have had properties worth billions in upscale suburbs like Naguru, Ntinda, Mbuya and Bugolobi.
Bagyenda recently opened war on the media houses who reported about her bank details as exposed by the leaked bank documents. Some editors we called at the CID to make statements while other declined to appear there for questioning.