LONDON —The dfcu Bank has suffered a major setback after the High Court t in London rejected their bid to amend its defence in the high-profile Crane Bank Limited (CBL) case.
In a significant ruling, the London Court agreed with the lawyers of former directors of the defunct Crane Bank Ltd led by tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia to throw out the PriceWaterHouse (PWC) forensic audit report, whose contents, the London Court enumerated, made allegations weren’t true.
The court agreed that the report is inadmissible under the Ugandan law, and several inconsistent versions of it raise questions about its reliability.
The dfcu Bank had sought to amend her pleadings to rely on the contents of the PWC report as evidence of the truth of the allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and fraud against CBL and it’s shareholders.
The Court has ordered the dfcu Bank to pay costs to the claimants, having rejected a second application to make forensic examination of phone records of the CBL shareholders.
In a second application, the dfcu Bank requests for sweeping document disclosure orders were largely rejected.
This ruling marks another significant victory for tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia and the shareholders of the defunct CBL, who have successfully fought both the Bank of Uganda and dfcu Bank, who benefited from the controversial sale of the Crane Bank Limited and its assets by the Central Bank.
A long-running lawsuit involving claims exceeding US $200 million, relating the defunct CraneBankLtd, is being heard by the English courts following a victory for Crane Bank and its shareholders in the Court of Appeal, of Uganda.
The UKs High Court earlier dismissed an attempt by dfcu Bank UK based directors to turn on the ‘foreign act of state doctrine, which prevents the English courts from hearing matters concerning foreign government acts of state taking place in the territory of the foreign state.
Crane Bank Ltd was one of Uganda’s largest commercial banks until 2016. The claim asserts that officials at the Bank of Uganda engaged in a corrupt scheme with the defendants, dfcu Bank to take control of Crane Bank and sell its assets for the benefit of the conspirators.
Along with its shareholders, Crane Bank claims unlawful means conspiracy against the Development Finance Company of Uganda (DFCU), its executives, and four development finance institutions who it is claimed took part in a fraudulent scheme to purchase Crane Bank’s assets at a gross undervalue.
