The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Jaffery Forex Bureau Limited has sued Bank of Uganda seeking compensation of Shillings 9.5 billion for revoking its license illegally. The Forex Bureau has filed its suit in the Civil Division of High Court through Kinobe Mutyaba Advocates. They are challenging the Central Bank decision of May 10, 2016 decision revoking their foreign exchange and money remittance licenses.
The Central Bank revoked the licenses accusing the Forex bureau of flouting regulations that govern foreign exchange and money remittance business in Uganda. The application is supported by an affidavit of Asim Morbi, the former Director Jaffery Forex Bureau. Morvi states that since inception in 1997, the company was carrying out legitimate business in Uganda until their license was revoked.
He explains that the decision to revoke their license followed allegations by Bank of Africa against the bureau for alleged involvement in illicit transactions, which caused the bank a loss of colossal sums of money. Morbi says the Bureau was cleared of any wrongdoing in a police report issued on October, 3rd, 2016.
He however, says BoU has since then frozen its bank accounts. “The said notice of revocation still didn’t espouse on the breach committed by the applicant, but only informed it that all its licenses had been revoked”, reads the document in part.
The company also notes that prior to the revocation of its license, the Director Crimination Investigations Directorate-CID wrote to the Deputy Governor BoU requesting him to unfreeze their accounts. But the Deputy Governor BoU declined to do so in his April 15th, 2016 letter, saying the Bank was still conducting investigations into the Company operations.
“The investigations therein were neither expounded nor specified to police or the applicant and they were all shrouded in mystery”, reads the application. The applicants now want court to declare the central bank decision illegal and that it was procedurally flawed.
They also want an order seeking to reinstate their licenses and unfreeze their Bank accounts. They are seeking Shillings 3.5 billion as punitive damages and Shillings 6 billion as general damages. Court has summoned BoU to file its defense before the case is allocated to a Judge who will fix it for hearing.
This is not the first time BoU is being sued for revoking the licenses of Forex Bureaus. In 2017, city businessman, Sudhir Ruparelia dragged BoU to court for failing to refund license fees for his four bureaus. He was compensated Shillings 277.8 million following a consent Judgment in the commercial court with the BoU Deputy Governor, Louis Kasekende in April, 2019.
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