Other Banks
Nicholas Biwott does not maintain any overseas bank accounts. Nicholas Biwott does not and never has had any accounts in Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and no amounts have been transferred for his benefit from this bank Kroll’s claim to have obtained this information from an unnamed person is at the very least questionable.
– Biwotts Lawyer
KROLL ON BIWOTT – BANKS AND BANK ACCOUNTS
BANQUE CANTONALE VAUDOISE
The Kenya Kroll Report alleged that Nicholas Biwott maintains overseas bank accounts and has moved ‘significant amounts of money from Banque Cantonale Vaudoise’.
DID KROLL GET IT RIGHT?
Biwott’s lawyer said: Nicholas Biwott does not maintain any overseas bank accounts.
Nicholas Biwott does not and never has had any accounts in Banque Cantonale Vaudoise and no amounts have been transferred for his benefit from this bank.
Kroll’s claim to have obtained this information from an unnamed person is at the very least questionable.
THE SOURCE INVESTIGATES…
The Source did not find any information during the course of our research to support this claim for which no supportive evidence was provided in the Kenya Kroll Report. Searches of records did not reveal any articles linking Biwott to Banque Cantonale Vaudoise.
KROLL ON BIWOTT – FIRST AMERICAN AND PAN AFRICAN BANK
Kroll alleged that Nicholas Biwott, owns, or has owned shares in two Kenyan banks: First American Bank and Pan African Bank.
DID KROLL GET IT RIGHT?
Biwott’s lawyer said: The Central Bank of Kenya keeps records of all those who own shares or have a beneficial interest in all banks in Kenya. Nicholas Biwott does not own, nor has he ever owned shares or had a beneficial interest in these banks. A cursory investigation would have established this as a fact.
KROLL ON BIWOTT – FIRST AMERICAN BANK
THE SOURCE INVESTIGATES…
The Kenya Kroll Report claimed that Biwott owns First American Bank together with Naushad Merali, James Kanyotu and Gideon Moi.
The Source assumes that this is a reference to First American Bank of Kenya Ltd. According to press reports, Merali formed First American Bank out of the Kenyan branch of the First National Bank of Chicago, which he acquired in 1987.
The Source however, did not find any evidence during the course of our research that Biwott has ever had a shareholding in First American Bank.
A detailed breakdown of the shareholders of First American Bank is available via this link.
KROLL ON BIWOTT – PAN AFRICAN BANK
THE SOURCE INVESTIGATES…
According to the Kenya Kroll Report, its ‘open source’ research indicated that Biwott owned Pan African Bank, although the report acknowledged that the bank was no longer in operation at the time of writing.
The ownership of Pan African Bank Ltd also came under scrutiny during the Goldenberg Inquiry which established its subscribers and shareholders.
The relevant paragraphs of the Bosire Report detailing the share ownership of Pan African Bank are reproduced via this link.
‘Mr Hedam’ (see ‘Various Company shares‘ for more detail) is allegedly a coded name for former president Moi and Pansal Investments is associated with Pattni.
The evidence available to The Source indicates that Biwott was not listed as a shareholder of Pan African Bank.
Biwott denied any links to Pan African Bank in a public statement reported in The East African Standard on 2 September 2007.
KROLL ON BIWOTT – BANQUE BELGOLAISE
The Kenya Kroll Report alleged that Nicholas Biwott, owns 40 percent, or even ‘solely’ owns, Banque Belgolaise.
DID KROLL GET IT RIGHT?
Biwott’s lawyer said: Nicholas Biwott does not and did not own any shares in, or have any interest in, Bank Belgolaise SA.
Belgolaise is a Belgian Bank founded in 1909 and its shares were quoted on the Brussels Exchange. It is owned 100% by Fortis Group, which is the No 1 financial group in Benelux countries and ranks as one of the top European financial services groups and is listed on several leading European and American stock exchanges.
Nicholas Biwott does not and did not own any shares or interest in Fortis Group.
This is public information which is readily available on the Bank’s website and can easily be verified otherwise by the bank or the Belgian Authorities.
THE SOURCE INVESTIGATES…
During the course of The Source’s research we found nothing to support the claim that Biwott owned shares in or was associated with Banque Belgolaise.
A number of newspaper articles reported that Banque Belgolaise became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Netherlands-registered bank, Fortis NV, in 2000, and ceased operations in 2006. (Prior to this, it appears that Banque Belgolaise was owned by another Belgian bank, Generale de Banque SA.)
This is consistent with the information provided on Bank Belgolaise’s website which is also consistent with the information provided by the Banker’s Almanac that provides reference data about banks around the world. Its databases indicate that Banque Belgolaise was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fortis Bank NV/SA from at least July 2001.
Fortis Bank was a significant financial institution that provided banking, insurance and investment management services and headquartered in Benelux. In 2007, Forbes.com listed it as the 20th largest by turnover in its Global 500 rankings. Following the economic downturn in 2008, it encountered financial difficulties and was broken up and sold on.
Biwott denied any links to Banque Belgolaise in a public statement reported in The East African Standard on 2 September 2007.
The Kenya Kroll Report also stated that: ‘It has been reported that Biwott and former president Moi are joint owners of Banque Belgolaise in Belgium, 40 percent of which is owned by Biwott (Source B). On the contrary, Msamaha alleges that the bank is owned solely by Biwott. Akber Esmail is on the board of directors of the bank, believed to be associated to Kenya’s Middle East Bank based in Nairobi (Source B)… Address searches are continuing.’
According to the report, ‘Source B’ claimed that Biwott was the sole owner of Banque Belgolaise while ‘Msamaha’, one of the four unidentified sources that Kroll relied on as the basis for their report, claimed that he had a 40 percent shareholding. The Source, however [as set out above] found no evidence during the course of our research to support either claim.
The Kenya Kroll Report also claimed that Akber Esmail was on the board of directors of Banque Belgolaise. Again, The Source found nothing to support this claim. Esmail is not listed as a member of the bank’s board of directors or international advisory board in Belgolaise’s management report of 2003, published in the first half of 2004.