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UK drops Kenya Anglo Leasing probe

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 5 – Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has dropped investigations into the nineties Anglo Leasing scam by Anglo Leasing Finance and related businesses.

A statement from SFO London on Wednesday said, the criminal investigations into a number of contracts had been terminated because of a lack of evidence from Kenya.

“If evidence is received from Kenya in the future, the Director (of the SFO) will consider reopening the investigation,” the statement from Elm House read in part.

It continued that the Director of the SFO had decided to terminate the investigation as there was currently no reasonable prospect of conviction without the evidence from Kenya.

The case depended on mutual legal assistance from the Government of Kenya after Britain opened investigations.

“In July 2007 the SFO opened a criminal investigation into a number of contracts between the Kenyan Government and business entities collectively known as the Anglo Leasing matter. The investigation has been conducted with the assistance of the City of London Police (Overseas anti-corruption unit),” the statement explained.

Documentation was seized in the UK and as a result, the formal Letters of Request to provide evidence were sent to different jurisdictions. Evidence was obtained from Spain, France and Switzerland. Kenya provided none.

The Anglo Leasing corruption scandal involves a total of 20 shady government contracts.

They occurred between 1997 and 2002 involving dubious, multi-billion shilling contracts for supplying Kenya with a system to produce tamper-proof passports, and for building police forensic laboratories among others. The deals involved Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd, a fictitious company.

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