Indian nationals wanted over Shs13b fraud claims
What you need to know:
- The Directorate of Interpol and International Relations, Uganda, In a March 16 letter to their counterparts in India and United Kingdom, requests for the arrest of the five suspects and extradite them to Uganda to face justice for theft and obtaining goods by false pretence.
Uganda Police Force is seeking the help of the International Police Organisation (Interpol) to arrest five Indian nationals alleged to have duped Portuguese investors Shs13.9b in a bogus agro-processing deal.
The suspects are alleged to have registered an agro-processing company, Kallal Agro-Processing Limited, in Uganda and even opened a bank account that they used to dupe the Portuguese investors trading under Pettigo Comercio International, and withdrew the funds meant for the investment. The suspects later fled the country to India where they are currently in hiding.
We have withheld the suspects’ names for legal reasons.
The Directorate of Interpol and International Relations, Uganda, In a March 16 letter to their counterparts in India and United Kingdom, requests for the arrest of the five suspects and extradite them to Uganda to face justice for theft and obtaining goods by false pretence.
“This letter, therefore, requests your office to accord…all the necessary assistance in tracing the suspects and inform us to send a mutual legal assistance request to facilitate the extradition process,” a letter written by Mr Alison Agaba on behalf of the Director Interpol and International Relations reads in part.
The fraud started after the five suspects registered Kallal Agro-processing Limited in Uganda with the help of a local law firm that was appointed as its secretary.
In 2021, the suspects approached Pettigo Comercio International to invest in their company, which they alleged was worth $5m, so that they would add value to their products and then export them to the European and Indian markets.
According to court records, Pettigo Comercio International sent a team in Uganda to do due diligence and they were taken to a farm, which the suspect claimed to own.
How it unravelled
“The suspects claimed to own 1,000 acres,” a court document states. The suspects allegedly, using a private jet, flew their victims from the United Kingdom to India where they showed them projects similar to what they are doing in Uganda.
The Pettigo Comercio International team was convinced.
Upon return to Europe, Pettigo Comercio International agreed with the suspects to part with $3.733m and own 70 percent of the Kallal Agro-processing Limited shares.
A police investigator, who preferred anonymity because he isn’t authorised to talk to the press, said Kallal Agro-processing Limited directors were also to transfer the shares upon the payment.
They set July 2022 as a target time to start work in Uganda.
Pettigo Comercio International wired $3.733m to Kallal Agro-processing Limited in one bank account in Uganda in the agreed month.
“Pettigo Comercio International then waited for the Kallal Agro-processing Limited directors to process the shares and bank accounts to reflect what is in the agreement in vain,” a detective said.
Smelling danger
In August 2022, Pettigo Comercio International contacted Kallal Agro-processing Limited’s directors, but all their contacts had been switched off.
Pettigo Comercio International sent a team to Uganda who found out that they had been conned and all the funds they sent to a bank account had been withdrawn.
The victims found out that the law firm that helped the suspects get registered in Uganda too had petitioned the registrar of companies to relieve them of the duties as Kallal Agro-processing Limited secretary because they hadn’t been paid.
Police alerted
They opened a case at the Criminal Investigations Directorate against the suspects. At the same time, they used their contact to trace the whereabouts of the suspects whom they traced in India.
“The suspects were arrested in India, but they were released on police bond. However, the victims later learnt that suspects had applied for visas to travel to the United Kingdom so that they would flee again. They informed the UK and the travel hasn’t yet worked out,” the detective said.
In Uganda, the investigations led to the sanctioning of the offences of theft and obtaining money by false pretences against the suspects.
On February 15, 2023, the Nakawa Chief Magistrate’s court issued an arrest warrant against the suspects.
“You are hereby directed to arrest the above-mentioned accused persons and produce them to the Chief Magistrate’s Court Nakawa at Luzira as soon as possible,” Principal Grade One Magistrate Peter Mutala ordered.
