Early September, the Central Bank of Kenya penalised five banks a total of 392 million shillings for violating financial transaction rules in respect to the handling of the 8 billion shillings scandal that was exposed this year/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 8-Eight commercial banks have pleaded guilty of facilitating the second multi-billion scandal at the National Youth Service according to the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji.
He says they said banks have entered a plea-bargaining agreement with his office to pay Sh300 million fine indicating one bank is already in the process of doing that.
It is a move that Secretary Public Prosecutions Dorcas Oduor has welcomed saying plea bargaining will help shorten the trial process, de-congest remand prisons and reduce the backlog of cases.
Early September, the Central Bank of Kenya penalised five banks a total of 392 million shillings for violating financial transaction rules in respect to the handling of the 8 billion shillings scandal that was exposed this year.
The Banks include Standard Chartered Bank, Equity Group, KCB Group, Co-operative Bank of Kenya Ltd, and Diamond Trust Bank.
Over 40 individuals are already facing various charges over the scandal that threatened to cripple the running of the state department.
KCB Group was penalized the highest at Sh149.5 million followed by Equity Bank at Sh89.5 million while Standard Chartered Bank will pay Sh77.5 million.
READ: CBK fines five banks Sh392m for violating rules in NYS scandal
DTB was fined Sh56 million while Co-operative Bank will pay Sh20 million.
The five banks handled a total of Sh3.5 billion from NYS with StanChart handling the largest transaction worth Sh1.6 billion followed by Equity Bank at Sh886 million, while KCB processed Sh639 million.
The violations included failure to report large cash transactions, failure to undertake adequate customer due diligence, lack of supporting documentation for large transactions, and lapses in the reporting of Suspicious Transaction Reports to the Financial Reporting Centre.
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