The money was discovered in a Standard Chartered Bank account belonging to the woman, who works for Platinum Credit Limited, and is thought to be proceeds of crime.
The Anti-Corruption Court’s Lady Justice Esther Maina ordered Standard Chartered to send the funds to the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) for safekeeping pending the outcome of the case on Tuesday.
According to ARA, Ms Wanjohi got $1 million from Platcorp Holding Limited on April 13 in the form of an unsecured loan with no stated purpose.
It was later confiscated by the agency as she was ready to wire it to South Africa via quick transfer, again without explanation.
Ms. Wanjohi allegedly produced an agreement with Platcorp Holdings Ltd purporting to be an unsecured loan after ARA raised an alarm that the transactions indicated money laundering operations and asked her to explain.
She also presented a second agreement between her and Premier Credit, dated April 7, 2022, in which she agreed to lend the corporation a comparable sum.
The loan agreement’s objective was not revealed, and no one signed as a witness.
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“The investigations established that there are reasonable grounds to believe the funds in issue are proceeds of crime obtained from illegitimate sources by the respondent, and that they must be preserved pending the filing and hearing of an intended forfeiture application,” said Gitiri Jennifer, a principal state counsel at the agency.
On September 12, the case will be discussed.
ARA froze Sh102 million wired to Felista Nyamathira Njoroge, a Nairobi Technical Institute student, in December.
After thinking that the millions were proceeds of money laundering paid to Felista’s account by Belgian businessman Marc De Mesel, who is alleged to be her boyfriend, the agency moved to have her account frozen.