SHACU arrests Balondemu’s Accountant in Fraud Case

KAMPALA.The State House Anti-Corruption Unit, along with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), has arrested an accountant from Bloom Advocates, Ibona Joseph, after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) reinstated a 4.7 billion shilling electronic fraud case against Land Boss David Balondemu and three others.

This afternoon, Joseph was brought before Buganda Road Court on 11 counts, including electronic fraud, conspiracy to commit a felony, obtaining money by false pretenses, uttering false documents, and forgery.

Ibona appeared alone before Buganda Road Court, which heard that between July 2022 and April 2023, in Kampala, he and the embattled Chairperson of the Kampala District Land Board, David Balondemu, along with lawyer Mkwe Eric Geoffrey and carpenter Kaweesa Ronald Kizito—who are still at large—used a computer network LinkedIn account under the name “African Natural Cannabis/Marijuana” to fraudulently obtain $1,310,650 through Bloom Advocates’ Stanbic Bank US Dollar Accont. The money was received from KG Unlimited LLC in Florida, USA. The accused did this under the false pretense that the funds would be given to the Government of Uganda for purposes including registration fees for a local company and disbursement for pre-qualification to participate in a single-source bidding process for the procurement/supply of a water plant for small grains.

Ibona Joseph is also separately accused of falsifying documents, specifically a statement of particulars required under the Business Name Registration Act, which he purportedly signed as Isiko Timothy Jonathan, despite not having that authority.

Additionally, the prosecution alleges that on 14th July 2022 in Kampala, Ibona Joseph presented a false resolution for Bloom Advocates to open, maintain, and operate both Ugandan Shilling and US Dollar accounts with Stanbic Bank Uganda Limited at the Garden City Branch.

Ibona has denied the charges in Buganda Road Court.

The court has remanded Ibona Joseph to Luzira Prison until tomorrow, 13th November 2024, for bail consideration, as the prosecutor, Allan Mucunguzi, reported that investigations in this case are still incomplete. The prosecution has also applied for criminal summons to be issued against Land Boss David Balondemu and the two others.