KCB seeks DCI probe over alleged Sh147bn remittance as document fraud claims deepen

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It began with what looked like the kind of high-stakes financial transaction straight out of a Hollywood heist movie, nearly Sh148 billion, a Swiss bank, secretive payment messages, alleged internal bank reports and a court battle involving one of Kenya’s biggest lenders.

But the plot now seems to have taken another dramatic turn. KCB Bank is now asking the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to investigate what it describes as the use of falsified banking and internal documents in the transaction.

The court battle over an alleged €978.7 million (Sh147.86 billion) transfer, is now raising serious questions about the authenticity of documents filed before the High Court.

Through a letter, the lender has lodged a complaint with the DCI’s Banking Fraud Investigations Unit against Foxcapital Investment Limited, which has sued KCB over claims that the funds were remitted to its euro-denominated account at the bank’s Sarit Centre branch.

In a letter dated August 28, 2026, KCB asked investigators to examine documents and representations made under oath in High Court Commercial Suit No. E533 of 2026, in which Foxcapital claims that BB Biotech AG Limited remitted €978,675,835 on November 28, 2025 from an account at UBS Switzerland AG to its KCB account.

KCB, however, maintains that the money was never transmitted to, received by or held by the bank.

According to the lender, preliminary investigations found no evidence that the alleged €978.7 million remittance was ever processed by UBS Switzerland AG or captured in KCB’s operational records, transaction systems or SWIFT infrastructure.

The bank said it wrote to UBS Switzerland AG on August 13, forwarding documents produced by Foxcapital and seeking confirmation of the alleged transfer.

KCB said the response from an executive at UBS indicated that the documents had not originated from the Swiss bank and were therefore not genuine.

The Swiss bank, according to KCB, also did not authenticate the alleged SWIFT messages, payment instructions, payment tracking records and other transaction documents submitted for verification.

The dispute has taken a more serious turn after KCB alleged that some of its purported internal documents filed as evidence in the case were also not authentic.

The bank’s Head of Compliance and Ethics has denied authoring, preparing, approving, signing or transmitting a purported P1 Incident Report dated April 17, 2026, which was produced in court as exhibit DDA 15.

KCB’s AML Manager in the Compliance and Ethics Department has similarly denied under oath authoring, preparing or signing an alleged Financial Crime Review and AML/CFT Clearance dated May 18, 2026, filed as exhibit DDA 16.

The documents are among those identified in KCB’s complaint to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit, alongside purported SWIFT messages, including an MT103, allegedly originating from UBS Switzerland AG.

KCB’s decision to bring in criminal investigators marks a sharp escalation in the high-stakes dispute, shifting the battle beyond a commercial claim over the alleged Sh147.86 billion transfer to a potential investigation into whether banking records and internal corporate documents were falsified and used to support the case.

The outcome of the DCI investigation could prove crucial to the court battle, particularly because the alleged remittance is at the centre of Foxcapital’s claim against one of Kenya’s largest lenders.

Foxcapital’s allegations remain before the court, while KCB has formally denied receiving or holding the funds and is now seeking a criminal investigation into the documents used to advance the claim.