UK Court condemns delayed Prosecution of Corrupt BoU officials who Conspired with DFCU to ‘steal’ Crane Bank
Judges of Court of Appeal in London are surprised that a group of questionable, dishonest and fraudulent officials from Bank of Uganda who orchestrated a plan to steal and sell off Crane Bank Limited (CBL) are not in prison.

And one of the recommendations highlighted in the Wednesday judgment by Court of Appeal from the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts in London was that in 2016 senior Ugandan government officials and officials of the Bank of Uganda (“the BoU”) engaged in a corrupt scheme to take control of CBL, making improper use of statutory and regulatory powers to do so, and then to sell its assets for the benefit of the parties to the scheme.
London Court of Appeal relays the events that took place between 2016 and 2017 when the unscrupulous BoU officials took over CBL and sold it to DFCU.
And that DFCU joined the corrupt scheme as purchaser of CBL’s assets from the BoU (acting as receiver of CBL), that purchase being at a gross undervalue. DFCU Bank’s holding company and certain current and former executives and directors of DFCU Bank are also alleged to have joined the scheme.’
This initially involved a Chinese diplomat, Dr Patrick Ho, who sought preferential access for CEFC China Energy (“CEFC”) in Uganda by bribing various government officials, including the Foreign Minister and the Deputy Governor of the BoU, in respect of which Dr Ho was subsequently convicted by the US District Court, Southern District of New York, a conviction upheld on appeal in 2020.
Dr Ho identified to the Foreign Minister that acquisition of a local bank in Uganda was CEFC’s top priority. In or about June or July 2016 CBL was identified as the target.
Pursuant to the corrupt scheme, and notwithstanding its previous approval of CBL’s audited accounts, on 1 July 2016 the BoU adjusted CBL’s capital position by about US$76.5m and ordered CBL to raise additional capital of about US$46.4m by 31 July 2016.
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