Bank of Uganda has agreed to return money businessman Sudhir Ruparelia had deposited to run forex bureaus. However, BoU has refused to pay for damages and interest resulting from their keeping the money against any lawful procedure.
Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia had accused the Central Bank of holding onto the money in question in a bid to coerce him into negotiating a case where he is accused of purportedly causing the collapse of Crane Bank. The Central Bank filed the case accusing Sudhir of allegedly removing over UGX200Bn from Crane Bank (CB). The regulator claimed the loss led to the alleged insolvency of Crane Bank.
The parliamentary report instead found BoU officials greedy, incompetent and fraudsters.
When the central bank closed down the four forex bureaus under Sudhir’s business empire, he wrote demanding that his deposits to run the businesses be returned. However BoU declined saying they can only return the money after the case against Sudhir has been disposed of.
Sudhir filed a case at the commercial section of the High Court questioning the rationale of holding his money he had deposited as security for running the forex bureaus even when the Central Bank had closed them.
The Central Bank however, finally agreed to make a refund totaling UGX277, 817,453 including money that Sudhir had paid for renewal of the bureaus operation licenses. The Central Bank’s Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende signed the consent arrangement while Sudhir signed on behalf of the bureaus.
The Commercial Court’s assistant Deputy Registrar, Lilian Buchana signed and sealed the consent in order to give it a legal effect. While Sudhir had asked for damages of over UGX200m as well as interest plus costs of the suit, the Central Bank did not agree to that demand. These are the issues that now remain for court to determine.
