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By:
ABIUD OCHIENG | |||||||||
| Posted:
Feb,27-2018 20:39:27
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Questions emerged Tuesday over the credibility of an American witness in the Anglo Leasing suit.
Mr Bradley Birkenfeld disowned court documents linking him to Kenya security tenders and his jailing over tax evasion in the US.
Through video conferencing Tuesday, Mr Birkenfeld disowned court records indicating that he had in 2013 signed some of the security supplies associated with Anglo Leasing contracts.
He also denied any link with Infotalent--one of the companies that supplied security items to government, under the Anglo Leasing contracts, saying he was neither a director nor a shareholder.
"I don't know who prepared the contract even though I can see it has my name and home address," Mr Birkenfeld.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on April 21, 2015 told the court that Mr Birkenfeld, 51, signed crucial documents as the managing director of Infotalent.
The EACC said in court papers that Mr Birkenfeld signed a supplier's finance agreement and documents for direct procurement as Infotalent’s managing director.
ADVISE CLIENTS
Mr Birkenfeld said his responsibility as director of UBS bank, in Geneva, was to acquire and advise clients with deposits of more than $1 million (Sh102 million).
The banker reckons that he met some of the accused persons while working at the bank where they had deposited $16 million (Sh1.6 billion).
Lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi for defence put him to task questioning his credibility and why the court should believe him given he had been jailed for 30 months by an American court after pleading guilty for tax evasion.
"Having been convicted by a competent court in America, is it not true you are a witness in this case so that you avoid being tried?" posed lawyer Abdullahi, adding that his testimonies were rejected in Canada.
Mr Birkenfeld, who was initially a suspect in the Anglo Leasing suit, has declined to testify personally in Kenya citing security fears.
The court allowed him to testify via video conference from a UK court.
The Kenyan court had initially issued a warrant of arrest against Mr Birkenfeld before he agreed to be a prosecution witness.
Lawyer Abdullahi for defence said that Mr Birkenfeld was converted to a witness by the prosecution following an agreement that he implicates other people in exchange for his freedom.
In the suit, former senior government officials and businessmen have been charged in connection with multibillion-shilling security tenders in 2003 that the government cancelled as irregular.
Hearing resumes Wednesday.
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Source:
Nation
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