Tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia has scored a win against Bank of Uganda following a consent agreement for BoU to return his Shs277m, which they had in their possession.
The money had been deposited by Sudhir as security to run three forex bureaus but they were also closed following the closure of his bank.
Sudhir’s lawyers Magna and Company Advocates argued that this action was unfair because the forex bureaus were independent of his bank.
The two parties reached a consent agreement dated December 19, 2018 in the Commercial Court.
The agreement was signed by Sudhir and Deputy Governor Louis Kasekende on behalf of BoU. Commercial Court’s assistant Deputy Registrar Lilian Buchana signed and sealed the consent in order to give it legal effect.
The breakdown of the money included Shs90m for Crane Forex Bureau, Shs92m for Stanhope Forex Bureau and Shs90m for Red Fox Forex Bureau.
The parties were involved in back and forth negotiations for over a year over the money, until Sudhir filed a suit before the Commercial Court.
In his plea, Sudhir reasoned that BoU was denying him the opportunity to use the funds in alternative business ventures and by extension denying him profit from such ventures.
BoU’s argument was that they were holding onto the money legally pending the determination of the case they had against Sudhir over Crane Bank.
However, with the forex bureaus being separate entities from the bank, Sudhir came out victor.