Date: Tuesday, 20 December 2016
http://observer.ug/news/headlines/50398-two-banks-probed-over-shs-8bn-fraud-murder-of-eritrean TWO BANKS PROBED OVER SHS 8BN FRAUD, MURDER OF ERITREAN December 20, 2016 Written by URN Police is investigating two banks in Kampala in connection with a syndicate that plotted to swindle 2 million Euros (about Shs 8 billion) from an Eritrean national. Police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi says that the Eritrean, Daniel Weldo, 32, had moved to Kampala because of the volatile situation in South Sudan, where he was running businesses. Weldo had saved up to 2 million Euros on an account in one of the Ugandan banks. However, Kaweesi adds, his encounter with an organized syndicate put his life in danger. He was reported missing on October 27. Reports indicated that he had been kidnapped by unknown persons. His body was found dumped in a farm near Busia district, Kenya over the weekend. “Since October police mounted serious overt and covert operations to recover him alive. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case. When he was kidnapped, he was taken and murdered in Kenya, in the Busia district of Kenya. The body was dumped in a swamp. And when we arrested one of the suspects he led us to where the body had been dumped. We have so far arrested three people.” Kaweesi says that prior investigations have unveiled a syndicate involving two banks and three people who could have connived to eliminate the businessman in order to get hold of his savings. Although he did not name the banks, Kaweesi named the suspected individual accomplices as UPDF Captain Hakeem Mangeni, the mastermind of the plot; Ben Lumu and Lucy Katuramu. According to Kaweesi, although the core business between the three suspects is not known, preliminary investigations indicate that Weldo contacted them in his search for a Germany visa. He added that the trio had accomplices in the banks with whom they worked in the hope that there will be no claimant to the money once the owner is eliminated. Kaweesi says it is not the first time; there is an attempt on the life and finances of a foreigner by the two banks and suspects.
