A Mombasa-based billionaire has gone to court to stop the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to use rival banks to pay small depositors of the collapsed Imperial Bank.
The bank went into receivership October last year.
Ashok Doshi, and his wife Amit, also want the court to order the defendants to deposit their more than Sh1 billion claimed to be locked up at Imperial Bank in an escrow account in the names of their advocates, according to the Business Daily.
the Doshis have argued that the court has jurisdiction to intervene before or after an institution is placed under receivership and deal with any question arising.
“We are afraid the CBK is running another parallel bank under Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) and is mixing our money with others at a very big risk to us,” said Doshi.
The complainants are associated with the Doshi Group, a company with interests in manufacturing and trading, including the sale of building materials and power cables. Founded in 1923 in Mombasa, the Doshi Group has grown organically and through acquisitions to become one of Kenya’s biggest manufacturing firms.
Imperial Bank depositors have been paid by KDIC up to a maximum of Sh1million each, subject to account and identity verifications, with the assistance of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and Diamond Trust Bank (DTB).