Emmanuel Katto: The Ugandan Fraudster Adept in Evading Prosecution

Posted by AxelPrice on March 21st, 2014

When it comes to discussing about the crimes taking place in Uganda, one cannot ignore Emmanuel Katto. He is referred to as one of the prominent figures of the underworld. Born in Uganda, though he started working in a paper and pulp company, later in the year 1985 he took up his own venture and became CEO of a company named Ascot Associates. Though, many people thought that it was his zest of working individually that inspired him to start up his own organization in the Isle of Man, this wasn’t the truth actually. He got this company registered to use it as a front for all his scam activities in Angola.

Not only was he a fraudster, but also an international arms importer and exporter. On having an extensive network with the corrupt legal officials in Ghana, he could operate all his fraudulent activities quite easily. However, criminologists speculated that this man has worked with the members of the anti-money charging police team to cover his scams. 

When Emmanuel Katto became the CEO, he got himself involved with Salim Saleh. With his influence over Uganda’s the then President named Yoweri Museuin, Emmanuel could manage to make the military helicopter deal. Saleh, an advisor in Uganda’s Ministry of Defence was paid somewhere around $800,000 by Katto as he helped him get the contract.

When this helicopter scam got exposed, an inquiry was set up where Saleh was questioned. In an answer to the verbal investigation he replied that he helped Katto because he just wanted to encourage a local businessman.

However, this was a trailer of the criminal-minded man, Emmanuel Katto. Soon he got involved in defrauding the African Governments, particularly Nigerian and Ghanaian. In the year 1996, his Ascot Associates was given two different names. In Nigeria it was famous as Transdanubia, whereas in Ghana it adopted the name of Transtema. The entire plan was executed when he met James Ibori while travelling from one place to the other. Now who is this Ibori? He was the governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich delta Province. Through this influential person’s help and some other corrupted officials, Emmanuel was given the contract of providing electricity to both the rural and the urban areas.

With promissory notes, this contract was finalised. But Katto cashed without giving any sort of services. According to the report, it was estimated that a humongous amount of money was defrauded by Ibori and Emmanuel, which they both used for enjoying a lavish lifestyle.

However, this scam actually continued till the year Ibori completed his term as a legal official. Soon after, Ibori was arrested and convicted and presently he is serving thirteen years of imprisonment for money laundering and defrauding.

But, Emmanuel is still not arrested, even though a lot of arrest warrants was and is issued against this criminal. However, he is now currently living in London in Regent’s Park and sources say that he very recently formed an organization named, Ferroleum Group. Registered under his son’s name in Hong Kong, this company is too operating in the same vein.

As he is wanted in a whole lot of countries, any business association with him will definitely come under scrutiny from higher legal authorities.

More information on Emmanuel Katto can be found here.