Jeetu Patel shares 'escape' auction

Mr Jeetu

Jeetu Patel, a prominent businessman, has managed to rescue his shares from being auctioned following a court order after he failed to honour a debt agreement.

The High Court Commercial Division ordered the auction of the debtor's shares last month to recover the money he owed Incar Tanzania. 

In his ruling, Judge Robert Makaramba, ordered the sale of the shares to recover a principal of USD 150,469 plus interest that accumulated to USD 203,888.19 or (326.22m/-).

The shares, 50 and 20,000 of Mr Jeetu in Noble Tanzania and Noble Azania Investment, respectivelly, were supposed to be auctioned by MEM Auctioneers and General Brokers on Sunday, May 27, at a public auction.

However, two days before the shares were auctioned, the debtor, through Kesaria and Company Advocates filed a settlement claim after their client paid USD 120,000 and said the remaining balance should be paid before   last month.

"In the event of the judgment debtor default, failure or neglect to pay the balance... we shall request your  honourable court to issue another proclamation for the sale of debtor's shares by public auction," the law firm said. 

In March 2010, Mr Patel, alias Jayantkumar Chandubhai Patel, contracted a loan of USD 150,469 from Incar Tanzania agreeing to settle at 10 per cent interest rate. The loan tenure was six months.

The agreement stipulates also an appointment of an arbitrator and imposition of 5 per cent extra interest in case of default. According to the case proceeding documents, the debtor failed to honour the obligation that warranted the appointment of an arbitrator.

Mr Ramesh Patel was appointed the sole arbitrator last August and his service cost 10m/-, slapped on the debtor's case bill. Despite the arbitrator effort to persuade the loan defaulter to settle the said amount, Mr Patel failed to pay, forcing the court to rule in favour of the lender.

In 2008, Mr Patel was among 25 suspects implicated in the External Payments Account (EPA) scandal involving the siphoning of US$133 million (about 212.8bn/-) from the government coffer.

Under EPA cases, all suspects are not allowed to sell or moving their assets until the completion of the matter before the court. Mr Patel is a Director at Noble Azania Investments, a holding company of the group.

Source: The Daily News,http://dailynews.co.tz, reported by Abduel Elinaza

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