Former Chase Bank chairman Mohammed Zafrullah Khan has been charged with conspiring to defraud Chase Bank of nearly Sh1.7 billion in addition to three more counts of stealing.

Zafrullah Khan was on Wednesday forced to spend another night in police custody after his lawyer, Cecil Miller, failed to secure his release on bond.

The trial magistrate is expected to rule on his application in the afternoon today.

The court heard that Mr Khan had committed the offence of conspiring to defraud Chase Bank Sh1, 683,000,000 by falsely pretending that the money had been disbursed to accounts of Carmelia Investments Limited, Cleopatra Holdings, Golden Azure Limited and Colnbrook Holdings as genuine loan facilities.

Mr Khan is also accused of stealing Sh483, 328,000 from the bank on December 31, 2015. The businessman is also charged with stealing Sh46 million on February 28, 2012 and another $2,610,800 on December 30, 2015 in addition to one count of failing to comply with provisions of the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act. He denied all the charges.

Zafrullah Khan was arrested on Tuesday by Police officers from the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit following a directive by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko.

The DPP had ordered that Khan and six other former Chase Bank officials be prosecuted over corruption claims that led to the collapse of the bank in 2016.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) in April 2016 put chase bank under statutory management for one year due to what it termed as “unsafe financial conditions” after the bank experienced liquidity difficulties.