Coast Textiles Limited asks court to intervene in Sh145.9 billion pay ruling

Dar es Salaam. Deposit Insurance Board (DIB) director Richard Malisa is risking being held accountable if he fails to implement a court order requiring the board to pay Coast Textiles Limited Sh145.9 billion.

DIB has been appointed liquidator of FBME Bank which is under liquidation.

Coast Textile Limited has sought intervention of the High Court in Dar es Salaam after FBME Bank failed to honour High Court’s judgment of 2015 requiring them to settle the amount.

The local company has filed an application for execution of the High Court decree issued in 2015 by Justice Aloysius Mujulizi that ordered DIB to pay it Sh145.9 billion.

The application has been placed before Deputy Registrar Cresencia Kisongo and is set for hearing on November 30, 2021.

Prior to the filing of the application, Judge Joaquine De-Mello had ordered in April this year that DIB pay the amount immediately following uncontested hearing of a similar application.

Counsel for Coast Textile Limited Joseph Rutabingwa has written to DIB over the need to enforce the court’s ruling but there has been no response to date.

The company has for the past 24 years been battling for its rights in courts pursuing its rights against FBME which was later taken over by BoT after being implicated in money laundering crimes. The take-over of FBME operation was meant to protect local customers.

In a bid to escape the liability, the managing director of Coast Textiles Limited, Mr Sudhir Lakhanpal had at one time sought the intervention of the Indian High Commission on the issue.

The efforts, however, bore no fruit, forcing the businessman to file application for enforcement of the court order.

BoT had also promised to sort the pending payment dispute upon hearing and determination of all court cases surrounding the matter.

But advocate Rutabingwa says in the new application that there are no pending cases over the matter following dismissal of various attempts by BoT to fight enforcement of the decree. Coast Textile Limited had been a customer of FBME since 1997 and had been granted an overdraft facilities of $600,000 by Trust Bank, through its branch in Kenya but the amount was not credited to Coast Textile Limited suppliers in India.

The company alleged in an affidavit to support its application that since 2017 DIB had maintained that they were still collecting the assets of FBME under liquidation.

The company says the information available indicate that FBME Bank has substantial amount of money in countries it operates including Tanzania, Cyprus and Russia.