The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of former Equity Bank Uganda employee David Sserwamba Musoke over the fraudulent withdrawal of USD 1.45 million, equivalent to about Shs5.4 billion, from customer accounts, in a major embezzlement and money laundering case.
Musoke was first convicted in 2017 by the High Court Anti-Corruption Division on multiple counts of embezzlement and money laundering, and sentenced to several 10-year prison terms.
He was also ordered to compensate Equity Bank Uganda USD 500,000 for financial losses arising from the fraud.
The Court of Appeal in 2022 later upheld his conviction on the main charges but struck out a conspiracy count, while maintaining the prison sentences.
Unsatisfied, Musoke appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the lower courts wrongly relied on hearsay evidence, improperly admitted electronic records, and ignored alleged violations of his rights during investigations.
He also challenged the authenticity of CCTV footage, bank transaction logs, and electronic records, questioning their chain of custody. In addition, he claimed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could have supported his defence.
However, in its ruling delivered on Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Uganda dismissed the bulk of the appeal, holding that it raised issues of fact rather than law, which fall outside its jurisdiction in a second appeal under the Judicature Act.
The justices emphasized that the Supreme Court is only mandated to determine whether the Court of Appeal made an error of law or reached conclusions unsupported by evidence, and cannot re-evaluate factual findings already settled by lower courts.
The panel further noted that disputes over CCTV footage, electronic transaction records, and banking system printouts had already been properly examined by the trial court and Court of Appeal, and could not be reopened at the Supreme Court stage.
Claims of alleged torture and suppression of evidence were also dismissed, with the court stating that they had not been properly raised or substantiated in earlier proceedings.
On the merits, the justices upheld findings that Musoke participated in fraudulent withdrawals from foreign client accounts, including transactions of USD 700,000, USD 500,000, and USD 250,000.
The court relied on CCTV footage, banking records, biometric security logs, and recovered funds linked to his associates as key evidence.
However, the Supreme Court found that lower courts failed to account for time Musoke spent on remand, as required under Article 23(8) of the Constitution. The judges therefore deducted two years, one month, and seven days from his sentence.
This adjustment revised his imprisonment terms to 9 years, 10 months, and 23 days on the main counts, and 4 years, 10 months, and 23 days on the remaining count, effective from June 1, 2017.
The court also upheld the compensation order requiring Musoke to pay Shs1.85 billion (equivalent to USD 500,000) to Equity Bank Uganda, noting that the bank had incurred losses after reimbursing affected customers.
The appeal was ultimately dismissed, with the Supreme Court concluding that no substantial miscarriage of justice had been demonstrated.
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