Cytonn Investment CEO Edwin Dande Grilled By MPs Over Loss Of Investments
Kenyan Parliamentary Select Committee on Public Petitions on Tuesday grilled Cytonn Investment CEO Mr Edwin Dande over the probable loss of investments in Cytonn High Yield Solutions Platform.
The committee chaired by Nimrod Mbai engaged Mr Dande on Cytonn Investments management, luring unsuspecting investors and Kenyans to dupe them, issue of the refund vis-a-vis the termination clause and subsequent mandatory 10% loss on deposit.
Mr. Dande was also engaged on initiatives of Cytonn Investment Partners to honour its agreement with the Purchasers of “The Ridge Project.”
In his response to the committee’s queries, Mr Dande gave the history of Cytonn and how it led to them appearing before the committee. He further assured the committee that there was no theft and that the money invested into the “Ridge Project” is still in the project.
Mr Dande stated that they could not move forward with the project due to a court order that barred them from completing the project or selling any assets to help fund the stalled project.
“Not a single shilling has been lost. All the money lies in the Real Estate Project. To finish the ‘Ridge Project,’ we need to sell some assets. However, the petitioners went to court to prevent the sale of assets, so we are stuck. The only error we did was we took on too many projects as we had the funds, but when COVID struck, a lot of investors pulled out thereby destabilizing the project plan,” said Dande.
The Petition committee further cross-examined the respondent on the allegations of mismanagement, how COVID affected the organization, the genuinety of the CEO and their plans to refund the petitioners.
Meanwhile, he welcomed an audit of his organization to put the record straight, requested the committee develop a regulatory body for developers, and expedited the process with the official receiver.
The Mbai-led committee requested the respondent to share his recommendations on how the National Assembly can resolve challenges in Real Estate.
The Public Petitions chair assured the respondent that the matter will receive a fair and just assessment before being submitted to the house.
“The end product of this committee is to recommend what is to be done. We assure you of a fair judgement and assessment.” said Mbai.
Cytonn Investments is a global real estate firm with operations in Nairobi, Kenya and the Washington, DC Metro Region in the United States.
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