Family Bank fined Ksh 64 million for handling National Youth Service funds

Family bank has entered a plea bargain to pay Ksh 64 million as court fine for facilitating payments of money looted from the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.

The agreement with the office of the Director of Public Prosecution will see the financial institution plead guilty to six counts of failure to disclose and report transactions by suspects in the NYS scam.

“The accused person (Family Bank) is entering into this plea Agreement and is pleading guilty freely and voluntarily without promise or behalf of any kind,” read the plea agreement.

The cash will be shared as follows; NYS will get Ksh 24.5 million while the courts will receive Ksh 40 million.

In September, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) fined five banks a total of Ksh392 million for violating transaction rules through handling of NYS money.

The affected banks included Standard Chartered Bank (StanChart) Equity Group, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd, and Diamond Trust Bank (DTB).

KCB was penalized the highest at KSh149.5 million followed by Equity Bank at KSh89.5 million, Standard Chartered Bank KSh77.5 million, Cooperative Bank KSh20 million and DTB KSh56 million.

“If the accused person fails to comply with the terms and conditions set forth in the plea agreement, the State may fully prosecute the accused on all criminal charges that can be brought against it,” read the agreement.