Cytonn Investments has taken to court the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) CEO Wycliffe Shamiah over defamation allegations.
According to Cyton CEO Edwin Dande, Shamiah has been “loitering the halls of parliament, TV stations, and social media”, telling half-truths and fabrications about two Cytonn products, the Cytonn High Yield Solution (CHYS) and Cytonn Private Notes (CPN).
“The purpose of the lawsuit is to stop Mr Shamiah from loitering the halls of parliament, TV stations, and social media telling half-truths and outright fabrications, and in the process hurting the very investors he is handsomely paid by taxpayers to protect. We need a quiet and enabling environment to restructure CHYS for the benefit of all investors. If he cannot support the process, he should just stay away from it and not undermine it with fabrications,” Dande posted on Facebook.
The suit borders utterances by Shamiah, who claimed that Dande is facing professional disciplinary cases, which Dande has refuted.
Reached for comment, Edwin said, “This is just the beginning of our defamation lawsuits, they have been defaming us for a while now. We thought we could persuade them to be fair but they are incorrigible. For example, they just went to parliament telling outright lies that I have cases pending before professional bodies, yet there is none. We shall sue them on every single defamation count.”
Cytonn has also filed a petition with parliament seeking his removal, and also lodged a complaint with the Board of CMA to investigate his conduct.
“On Chase Bond, he blamed CBK. On Imperial Bond, he blamed CBK. On Amana Money Market Fund, he blamed Nakumatt. On Nakumatt itself, he blamed Private Offers. On CHYS he is now trying to run away saying this 7-year fund whose structure he advised is illegal? A capital markets CEO should be resolving market problems, not pulling theatrics to exonerate himself and in the process, badly damaging investors,” added Dande.
Early this month, CHYS and CPN were placed under court-appointed administration as part of ongoing efforts to turn around their performance.
Administration gives the funds the room to restructure, recover, and return value to investors, and does not amount to liquidation.
Following the onset of Covid-19, the funds experienced liquidity strains that were further aggravated by negative publicity and sustained regulatory attacks. In the circumstances, the board of investors of the funds concluded that administration was the best option to provide an enabling environment to restructure the funds and return value to investors.
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