Interpol joins BOU Heist Probe

The National Central Bureau commonly known as Interpol – Uganda has written to its counterparts in three countries to help trace all foreign accounts that received part of the 60 billion shilling siphoned from Bank of Uganda.

Sources privy to the ongoing investigations have revealed that early this week Interpol-Uganda officially wrote to its counterparts in the countries where the stolen money ended. These include Japan, the United Kingdom and Interpol headquarters in France.

“As part of the efforts to recover the siphoned money, BOU and CID demanded for Interpol-Uganda intervention and an alert note was sent to Japan, UK and Interpol headquarters. There are other three countries where investigations are leading to and they might also be given an alert once investigations confirm that part of the money ended there,” sources said.

Interpol-Uganda is headed by SCP Joseph Obwana deputized by SCP Fred Enanga and SCP Yusuf Ssewanyana, who are grounded in economic crime investigations.

SCP Obwana was deputy to now retired AIGP Grace Akullo when she was director CID, Enanga once served as economic crime investigator at CID while SCP Ssewanyana is an IT expert who until three months ago was director police’s ICT directorate.

According to Uganda Radio Network the problem has silently been ongoing for nearly five weeks after President Yoweri Museveni directed Maj Tom Magambo the Director Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) to take lead in finding out how the money was siphoned.

However, investigations took another twist a few days ago after it was discovered that the loss of 60 billion shillings was not hackers’ role but it was a well-orchestrated deal by BOU staff in collaboration with staff of ministry of finance and accountant general.

17 people have since been probed including nine from BOU, six from the finance ministry and two from the accountant general office. All the suspects are currently under tight security surveillance and their gadgets such as laptops and smart phones have been confiscated.

President Museveni has since tasked Defence Intelligence and Security (DIS) formerly Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) to spearhead the investigations in collaboration with CID and ESO.

Despite the fact that the Army in which DIS belongs and Police which oversees CID have remained cagey, Henry Musasizi, the state minister for finance confirmed to parliament the ongoing probe. He added that the amount of money being reported in local and international media is too much.

However, Musasizi did not reveal the exact amount of money BOU lost but promised to tell parliament the final details after the probe.