Lawyer Esther Bitutu Kadiki has been arraigned in court and detained over Sh 1.5 billion in money laundering from Equity Bank.
Appearing calm on May 2025, before magistrate Lucas Onyina, the lawyer was detained after police sought to be granted 3 weeks to complete investigations.
Bitutu is being investigated for offences of money laundering, engaging in organised criminal activities, computer fraud, stealing, and handling stolen property, all against the law.
The fraud was reported by Equity Bank through a letter dated July 2024.
The police say that Equity Bank has complained that in May 2024 and July 2024, numerous fraudulent debits amounting to Sh 1,499,465,831.29 were made from the bank’s internal salaries remittance general ledger and credited to several non-Equity Bank accounts.
“In all circumstances, fictitious narrations regarding the actual source of funds were made in the bank’s systems to conceal or disguise the nature, source, location, disposition, or movement of such funds,” reads the investigative report in parts.
Lawyer Esther Bitutu Kadiki
According to police, a preliminary investigation further established that towards creating a convoluted trail to mask the illicit source of the funds, such unlawfully credited amounts were subsequently layered by the first tier of beneficiaries through several means or layers of intricate financial transactions, including bulk withdrawals, transfers to other bank accounts, and cryptocurrencies.
The banking fraud investigation officers had informed the court that Sh 38,404,574 out of the stolen money from the bank was credited to the accounts at the NCBA bank association with lawyer Bitutu.
“The money was in an account in the name of Inforide Point Limited, domiciled at NCBA, a company she co-owns with her husband, added bank fraud investigators in an application to detain the lawyer.
The money was also wired to an account she owns alone in the name of KADIKI & ADVOCATES, domiciled at the National Bank of Kenya.
The team of investigators, in their application to detain the woman, said they believed that, going by the complexity of the matter, the investigation needs more time to track and trace other associates who are in constant communication with Lawyer Bitutu.
They wanted the court to grant them 21 days to complete the investigations.
