Court documents obtained by the Hot Pepper in the US$1.2 million lawsuit filed by the Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank (Liberia) Limited against businessman George B. Kailondo and the Kailondo Petroleum Incorporated have raised questions regarding the bank’s allegation against the businessman and created an atmosphere that appears to be a fraudulent act on the part of the bank.
According to the court records, on April 27, 2021 the Finance Manager of Kailondo Petroleum (KP), Martin Owusu, met with the bank to reconcile KP loan from the bank, after Kailondo had requested that auditors do so when he suspected illegal transactions with his account.
During their meeting, it was established that the total payments received during the Novation Agreement was US$384,255.64, of which US$291,047.53 was on the Novation stipulation and US$93,208.00 was received from the supplies of gas and fuel oil to the bank.
The court documents further proved that US$235,830.25 was used from the US$384,255.64 to settle the outstanding balance on the US$250,000 term loan availed to KP on March 14, 2017.
Additionally, US$148,425.39 was used as reduction on the Novation Agreement and an amount of US$791,458.83 was expended, thereby leaving the total amount outstanding of US$643,033.72 on the Novation Agreement.
Moreover, the court records revealed that US$758,481.00 was outstanding balance on the Novation Agreement because of default interest on arrears, and was restructured on June 20, 2018 with payment tied to the supply of gas and fuel oil to the bank.
The court record also showed that the US$235,445.00 reflected on the sub account #201-11605-211 in June 2018 was default charges and commissions on Letter of Credits and not as outstanding balance of time loan.
In the court document, KP argued that the US$306,644.48 was not noted as default interests on the “restructured Time Loan” of US$758,481.00, and that the US$235,445.00 was not noted as default charges and commissions on the Letter of Credits.
However, the court records revealed that US$20,736.38 was noted as default interests on the US$250,000 Time Loan arrears.
Furthermore, there was no evidence of “Offer Letter” for the US$2.5 million along with its accompany US$50,000 commissions and US$62,500.00.
KP management argued that in the absence of the Offer Letter the bank would be held liable to reverse the debits.
However, KP paid US$414,872.4 to the bank in its obligation in reference to the Novation Agreement.
KP revealed that, after the payment, GT Bank unilaterally increased the outstanding balance to US$1.2 million.
The company’s documents established that from 2015, GT Bank withheld over US$500,000 from it, and it was later discovered by the company after an audit was conducted.
Minutes from a three-day meeting held in May 2021 to reconcile KP’s account with the bank, and signed by Martin Owusu of KP, Mohammed Sheriff, Joe Ninneh and Mohammed Paasewe all of GT Bank, agreed that “as to the Time Loan, KP made two payments of US$29,000 and US$11,000, so the payments on the Novation Agreement sent to the Time Loan were error”.