A court document in the possession of the Hot Pepper has revealed further discrepancies into Kailondo Petroleum Incorporated’s account at the Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank Liberia Limited, bringing the bank’s allegation against Cllr. George B. Kailondo into questioning.
The Letter of Credit (LC) accessed by the paper disclosed that in 2015 GT Bank opened a credit line of US$3,300,000 (three million three hundred thousand United States dollars) to enable Kailondo Petroleum (KP) to obtain 5,000 metric tons of petroleum products from Eco Fuel.
KP received the petroleum products in bits and pieces and, based on the agreement, funds accrued from the sale of the products were deposited into the account.
However, the court document shows that six years later, after the audit and reconciliation of Kailondo’s account, it was observed that the bank had withdrawn the total of US$3,468,999.95. Deducting the actual credit line, which is US$3,300,000, from the amount the bank withdrew, a sum of US$168,999.95 would add up to the amounts illegally withdrawn by GT Bank authorities from Kailondo Petroleum’s account.
After the discovery of this huge discrepancy, GT Bank argued that the ship supplying Kailondo Petroleum brought in more products for Kailondo than stipulated. But when the court subpoena the Liberia Petroleum Refinery Company (LPRC), the entity provided documentary evidence that no ship brought in petroleum product for Kailondo.
This revelation from LPRC ascertained Kailondo’s claim that the bank’s excess withdrawal was illegal, unauthorized and criminal in nature.
Recently the Hot Pepper published documents in which the authorities of GT Bank alluded to illegally withdrawing US$510,000 (five hundred and ten thousand United States dollars) from KP’s account.
In a letter dated April 22, 2021 to Dr. Jallah A. Barbu, legal counsel of Kailondo Petroleum Incorporated, GT Bank wrote, “We acknowledge receipt of your communication dated April 22, 2021 in which you conveyed the decisions reached at the conference held at our offices on April 22, 2021 regarding: an unauthorized United States five hundred and ten thousand (US$510,000.00) debit to Kailondo Petroleum’s account; and queries by Kailondo Petroleum regarding the outstanding amount owed as its loan obligation to the bank.
“The bank generally agrees with your conclusions except paragraph 3, in which you asserted that the bank will credit your account and will honor any check issued as of today growing out of our discussions and the decisions reached. We wish to clarify that the bank agreed to credit your account and will honor checks up to the amount that will be available in your account as at the time the checks are presented to the bank.”
With the bank acknowledging US$510,000 illegal withdrawal from Kailondo’s account, and the court upholding that US$168,999.95 was withdrawn in excess from the account, this brings the sum of the amount illegally withdrawn from Kailondo’s account to US$678,999.95 (six hundred seventy-eight thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-five cents).
In addition to these amounts, Cllr. Kailondo is accusing the GT Bank of additional unauthorized and illegal withdrawals from his company’s account, which he claims sum up to the amount observed by the auditors during the reconciliation of his account. Investigation continues.