Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry Report - Mars Group Kenya

common shareholders and directors. They were Kamlesh Mansukhlal
Damji Pattni and James Kanyotu. They were also the promoters of the
two companies. Little was known of the former. He was then a young
man of about 25 years of age and who held a British Passport. He was
the son of a gold jewellery dealer at Mombasa. Pattni testified that he
moved to Nairobi from Mombasa, sometime in 1987 and with his elder
brother they established similar business along Dubois Road styled
Manorama Limited. Later they relocated to Mageso Chambers. It was
while doing business at the said place that Goldenberg International Ltd
and Exchange Bank Ltd, were conceived and promoted.
45. Mr. Kanyotu, on the other hand was then the Director of
Intelligence within the Kenya Police force. He was a well known public
figure although nothing of his private life was known. The evidence
before us does not explicitly show how the two came to know each other
intimately so as to have become shareholders and directors of the two
companies. Mr. Pattni testified that they met at some shop
coincidentally and were introduced to each other by a mutual friend, Mr.
Veljibhai Gami.
46. So what was the Goldenberg Affair? In a nutshell it was a series of
business deals or alleged business deals revolving round various
economic schemes to wit, Export Compensation, Pre-shipment Finance,
Retention Accounts, Forex Cs, Spot and Forward Contracts, cheque
kiting and outright theft. The transactions were allegedly either illegal or
irregular and were regarded as fraudulent. Later on in this report we will
deal exhaustively with each of the schemes. But first we will briefly
discuss the incorporation of the two companies which we said were at
the centre of the Goldenberg Affair.
[F] GOLDENBERG INTERNATIONAL LTD
47. The company was first registered on 11 th July, 1990 with a
nominal capital of Kshs.100,000 divided into 1,000 shares of Kshs.100