Nigerian-owned investor launches USD 40 million judicial review over the Zambian government’s 2024 liquidation of Investrust Bank.
Bank of Nevis International (BONI) has challenged the Zambian government’s decision to reject its shareholding and liquidate Investrust Bank, after defeating the central bank’s attempt to avoid litigation.
BONI, owned by Nigerian businessman Michael Prest and headquartered in the Caribbean island of Nevis, filed for judicial review against the Bank of Zambia, together with the country’s minister of finance and attorney general, on 22 July, alleging breaches of the Banking and Financial Services Act 2017.
The filing follows a ruling by Justice Charles Zulu of the Lusaka High Court at the end of June this year, which rejected the Bank of Zambia’s attempt to remove itself from the case. The court had already thrown out two earlier applications by the central bank to have the litigation set aside and dismissed as an abuse of process in December 2025.
The judicial review is expected to take place in 2027.
BONI, headquartered in Nevis, acquired a 24.8% stake in Investrust Bank between March 2021 and November 2022. The investor alleges that the Bank of Zambia and Lusaka Securities Exchange both ignored its requests to register the shareholding for two years, before the central bank decided not to recognise the shareholding and instead placed Investrust into liquidation in 2024.
In a press release, BONI described the delay and rejection as “unlawful, negligent and calculated”. It is seeking USD 40 million, plus costs, for loss of opportunity to “restructure or recapitalise the bank before it collapsed”.
BONI has instructed London and Washington, DC-based lawyer Robert Amsterdam, who said in a statement: “The Bank of Zambia has tried three times to keep this case from being heard, and three times the Zambian courts have told it no. This was never a case with any procedural weakness. It is a case the Bank of Zambia does not want examined on its merits, because the merits are damning.
He continued: “BONI bought its shares through a licensed broker on a regulated exchange, complied with every request the central bank made of it, and was left with a worthless stake and no explanation. Now the minister of finance and the Bank of Zambia will have to answer, under judicial review, for a liquidation carried out in flagrant breach of Zambia’s own banking law.”
The founder and managing partner of transatlantic law firm Amsterdam & Partners, Amsterdam is a veteran human rights and public international law specialist, whose work includes a 2024 criminal case accusing Apple of trading in ‘blood minerals’ from the Democratic Republic of Congo, appearing for Mikhail Khodorovsky against the Russian government in the long-running Yukos affair and representing former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a challenge to the Thai government.
Bank of Zambia did not respond to ALB’s request for comment on the new filing. In a 14 July statement, issued in response to claims filed by former Investrust employees, the central bank said that it “wishes to reiterate that it took possession of Investrust Bank Plc (In Liquidation) on account of insolvency, pursuant to the BFSA [Banking and Financial Services Act]. This means that the bank did not have sufficient assets to meet its obligations as they fell due”. The statement added that “the bank remains committed to conducting the liquidation process in a transparent, fair, and lawful manner, and to ensuring that all claims are addressed in accordance with applicable legal requirements”.
