3 Additional Suspects Remanded in Equity Bank’s Billion-Shilling Fraud Case

Three more individuals, including a former Equity Bank employee, have been arrested in connection with a major fraud case involving billions of shillings in unsecured loans from Equity Bank.

The detainees include two ex-employees of Airtel Uganda who have since become businessmen, Godfrey Mukwaya and Robert Mugumya, as well as Fred Kato, previously the head of Small and Medium Enterprises at Equity Bank.

They were brought before the Anti-corruption Division’s Magistrates Court on conspiracy to defraud charges, although they were not allowed to plead.

Mukwaya, formerly a sales manager at Airtel Uganda, is accused of using various individuals to establish bank accounts that siphoned over Shs10 billion from the bank. Meanwhile, Mugumya allegedly set up 179 fake companies that helped divert over Shs35 billion from Equity Bank using different identities.

Magistrate Albert Asiimwe barred the accused from entering pleas, linking them to a larger ongoing money laundering case expected to be heard in the High Court. “This court can address conspiracy charges, but as this is part of a money laundering case, you will plead in the High Court,” Asiimwe stated.

These arrests bring the total to eight suspects implicated in the fraudulent issuance of over Shs62 billion in unsecured loans from Equity Bank.

On March 20, 2024, five other Equity Bank employees were charged with money laundering and issuing Shs62 billion in unsecured loans to unqualified recipients.

Those charged include Julius Musiime, head of Agency Banking, and Erina Nabisubi, a telecom relationship manager, among others. They face accusations ranging from obtaining credit by deception, money laundering, to conspiracy to defraud.

Prosecutors allege that between 2021 and 2024 at Equity Bank’s main office in Kampala, Nabisubi and accomplices falsified loan applications and misrepresented eligibility requirements to illegally secure large sums.