Court says SK Mbuga’s wife will escape if given bail

The Anti -Corruption Court in Kololo has denied bail to Angella Chebet, 33, the wife to jailed Ugandan socialite, Sulaiman Kabangala Mbuga, also known as SK Mbuga.

Chebet, who is battling charges related defrauding her Swedish boyfriend in a fake gold deal is said to have jumped bail she had been granted in Sweden before returning to Uganda.

On Wednesday Grade one Magistrate Pamela Lamunu Ochaya said she is not convinced Chebet would adhere to bail conditions.

“The applicant is a flight risk after she successfully fled Sweden under unknown circumstances. Her Swedish passport was taken but she found her way into Uganda,” the magistrate said.

Lamunu explained that despite presenting five people to stand surety for her, there was no guarantee that they would force her adhere to the set bail conditions.

The magistrate said none of the sureties was capable of stopping Chebet from jumping bail in case she was determined to.

“None of the five sureties has convinced court of their duties. This application therefore is dismissed.”

Chebet was arrested last month and arraigned before the Anti-Corruption Court Chief magistrate, Pamella Lamunu Ocaya and charged with obtaining money from Heinsoo Sten, a Swedish national by false pretence and wiring it to her Ugandan bank account.

According to prosecution, Chebet, a nurse and resident of Buziga, Upper Konge in Makindye division in Kampala received $51800 an equivalent of shs152 million contrary to section 305 of the Penal Code Act.

“On April 7, 2015, Chebet received the money by falsely pretending to facilitate a gold deal transaction whereas not,” the court was told.

The court was also told that Mbuga’s wife again defrauded the Swedish boyfriend of $56,620 which is an equivalent of shs167 million and shs107 million in the same month in 2015.

Chebet was also charged with money laundering contrary to section 3(c), 116 and 136(i) a of the Anti- Money laundering  Act for soliciting and demanding that the money she had defrauded from the Swedish boyfriend be sent to her Barclays bank account back home in Uganda.

All these fraudulent transactions according to the prosecutor took place between April and May 2015.

The State last week asked court not to grant bail to Chebet because she is fugitive who jumped bail after being released temporarily by a court in Sweden.

“She is charged with money laundering, a serious offence carrying a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison or a fine of Shs2b. The amount involved is Shs23b, which she, together with her Swedish boyfriend Heinsoo Sten, defrauded a company, Einar Matsson AB and it was wired to her account in Barclays Bank,” State prosecutor  Innocent Alito told the Anti-Corruption High Court last week.

Angella Chebet was last month arrested by police from her home in Buziga after being contacted by Bowman a local law firm, working on behalf of Einor Mattson AB Construction Company, a Swedish company that deals in construction and  claims that together with  her boyfriend back in Sweden, they  diverted 6 million US Dollars approximately shs23 billion .

Vivian was arrested in Sweden in 2017, taken to court but secured bail and fled Sweden before landing in Kenya from where she entered Uganda by road.

Swedish media last year reported that their government had requested their counterparts in Kampala to help Chebet and her husband, SK. Mbuga arrested.

“As stated in the preliminary investigation, a request for legal assistance to Uganda has been sent, which has not yet been answered,” the Swedish Chamber prosecutor Mathias Lidberg’s was quoted by the media in Sweden last year.

Vivian and SK Mbuga have since been living a lavish life with many questioning the origin of their wealth.

However, in February last year, Chebet’s husband, Mbuga was arrested in the United Arab Emirates.

He was early this year transferred from a Dubai prison to Denmark.