Two foreigners were Friday arrested after they allegedly obtained Sh6.4 million from an Australian man on the pretext of selling him gold.
This is the latest such incident to be reported to police in a trend that follows a similar script and befalls those eager to make quick money.
The first one to be arrested was a Burundian national identified as Chris Mugisha and a Malian man who had posed as a diplomat Abdoulay Al Bauchiry Mohammed.
The Australian man identified as Hwalla Karim explained to the police how he was conned of the money in a script that has become common on foreigners eager to make quick money by getting cheap gold.
He said he bought gold from Mali in September 2020 but due to a coup that had taken place there, he could not export the consignment as he had anticipated.
It was then that he sought the assistance of Mohammed who had posed as a Malian diplomat in Kenya.
He was introduced to another foreigner identified as Yali Kou who told him he had shipped the one ton of gold to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but was allegedly detained there by customs officials.
The Australian said at that point Mohammed informed him he would help him to pick the consignment from Addis Ababa to Kenya then to its destination in Beirut, Lebanon.
Later he was told the consignment had reached Nairobi and it needed clearance from Kenyan customs and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officials.
This forced the complainant to travel to Nairobi where he was shown the consignment and told to pay USD 64,500 (Sh6.4 million) for the clearance to be done by a local clearing agency.
According to police, he paid in cash to the Burundian national who said he was a director of the said clearing company in the presence of Mohammed at the offices along Diani Road, Nairobi.
“He was given a commitment letter to ship the consignment to Beirut, Lebanon under the escort of the diplomat. He was also given a copy KRA letter for clearance dated 1/7/2020 which he later discovered to be fake,” police said.
Police took action on Friday morning and arrested the two foreigners at their offices and recovered fake original letters.
The officers said they later went to Mugishu’s house along Wanyee Road in the city and recovered six pieces of imitation of gold bars, two pieces of forceps and two embossing seals
They did not recover anything from Mohammed’s house along Gitanga Road.
Police plan to charge them with obtaining money by false presences while Mohammed will face an extra charge of being in the country illegally.
This is the latest such incident to be reported to the police involving foreigners and where unsuspecting buyers are conned of millions for being eager to get gold.
Director of Criminal Investigations boss George Kinoti urged Embassies and High Commissions to advise their nationals coming in for business Kenya doesn’t hold any huge consignments of gold.
“The gold scam has now reached alarming levels as unsuspecting foreign nationals are being swindled large amounts of money by fraudsters,” he said.
Kinoti said Kenyans and foreign nationals must ensure that they conduct proper due diligence on the person(s) they intend to engage in the gold buying business.
Dozens of foreigners have in the past been arrested in Kenya and deported for being engaged in the fake gold deals.
Some of the Kenyans involved in the deals are also facing various charges over the same.
The case is yet another one of obtaining money by false pretences to be reported to the police.
Obtaining money by false pretence, bank fraud and land fraud are the three leading economic crimes reported to the DCI in the last three years.
The actual extent of the fraud has however not been established due to underreporting, and in some cases, failure to report such crimes to the police.
According to a report compiled by the DCI such crimes were underreported and in some cases not reported in good time thus negatively affecting effective investigations.
Bank fraud cases decreased from 551 in 2019 to 326 last year; obtaining from 2708 in 2019 to 1550 last year; while land fraud cases decreased from 1123 to 960 over the same period.
In 2018, a total of 2,406 cases of obtaining by false pretences were reported to the DCI.
A total of 1451 cases were taken to court and out of that 139 cases were dismissed while another 73 were also dismissed due to lack of evidence.
The report added some victims or the affected parties were reluctant to report due to business risks in their endeavour to save their brand names and business image.
It identifies the fear of adverse publicity, embarrassment and shying off in the court process as some of the challenges the DCI was facing in investigating such crimes.