US firm suspended from trading after Yatani protest
Fred Aminga @Faminga
Shares of Kallo Inc, the company that claimed a Sh139 billion loan deal with the National Treasury and Planning, have been suspended from trading by the United States Securities Exchange.
In its filing, the company said the contract was purportedly signed in 2020 to build hospitals countrywide on the back of Coronavirus outbreak, which loan would be paid in three tranches.
In a statement yesterday, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yattani said after a local daily published the story about the loan on March 19, 2021, he lodged a complaint and an investigation ensued thereafter over “the unsigned malicious loan contract filed by Kallo Inc.”
He said he requested an investigation on the matter since it had the potential to irreparably harm Kenya’s fiduciary standing among foreign investors after which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in America took immediate action by suspending the shares from trading.
Accurate information
“It appears to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the public interest and the protection of investors require a suspension of trading in the securities of Kallo, Inc, a Nevada corporation,” said Vanessa Countryman the Commission’s Secretary.
Further, the regulators said the move was informed by lack of accurate information of questions regarding the accuracy of statements the company made in filings with the commission, “including a Form 10-K for the year ending December 31, 2020, filed on March 3, 2021”.
