Nairobi court dismisses $1bn suit against Bluebird owners

The Kenya High Court in Nairobi has dismissed charges filed by a minority shareholder of Bluebird Aviation (Kenya) (BBZ, Nairobi Wilson) who accused his partners of siphoning more than KES108 billion shillings (USD1 billion) from the airline through tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering.

Business Daily reports the ruling by Justice Alfred Mabeya brought to an end a five-year court battle by 25% shareholder Yusuf Abdi Adan against fellow shareholders Hussein Ahmed Farah, Hussein Unshur Mohamed, Mohamed Abdikadir Adan, and Blue Bird Aviation Limited. Justice Mabeya found that Adan had failed to prove his claims of fraudulent accounting, tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering by the accused.

The judgment followed after Kenya’s Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) – after a nine-month investigation – had cleared Farah, Mohamed, and Abdikadir Adan of financial malpractices charges.

“In the present case, all that the plaintiff did was to make sweeping allegations without any backing by way of evidence. He only stated that he had carried out investigations and (had) made (the) discovery of the allegations he made,” the judge concluded. “The documents that were produced were not authenticated to prove any of the allegations made against the defendants.”

The plaintiff argued that his fellow shareholders had covertly diverted more than KES108 billion (USd1 billion) into offshore accounts and overseas investments. He claimed the three directors had used airport passes granted for restricted airport areas to move the money. However, this was dismissed by the DCI, as neither it, nor the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) had found any evidence of money laundering. Kenya’s Financial Reporting Centre through the DCI said it had failed to detect breaches while tracking the flow of cash in and out of Blue Bird Aviation.

Adan had claimed that his partners were stashing proceeds from the airline in international banks under Amazon International FZE, an offshore company based in Ajman in the UAE, but Justice Mabeya said his partners had sufficiently proven that their relationship with the company was purely commercial.

The judge also found that Adan’s actions had negatively impacted the airline. “All the steps taken by the plaintiff were contrary to the success of the company. They were meant to sound a death knell on the company,” he added.

As reported, Adan had first filed money laundering charges against his fellow shareholders in 2016.

Bluebird Aviation provides passengers and cargo charters including humanitarian and medical relief flights, dangerous goods and livestock cargo flights; as well as group- and private charters for the oil and gas sector, pilgrimages, repatriation and tour operator flights, and business and luxury travel charters. Its clients include the United Nations, the Kenya government, the Kenyan Red Cross Society, and the US government, according to the company website. Its fleet of comprises four DHC-8-100s, one DHC-8-Q400, four DHC-8-Q400(PF)s, and two F50s, according to ch-aviation fleets advanced data, as well as two Let 410s and a DHC-5 Buffalo.