A Nairobi court on Wednesday granted the Director of Public Prosecutions more time to serve defence with the remaining documents in a criminal case in which eight businessmen are charged with attempting to steal Sh2.85 billion involving fake gold.
The eight suspects namely Charles Vincent Njerenga, Didier Muke, Kelvin Mwaura Ngotho,Brian Otiende, Patrick Otieno, Mark Kabete, Ken Kiboi, Joshua Ngandi who appeared before Milimani senior principal magistrate Martha Nanzushi have since denied having attempted to steal $19,000,000 (Sh2.85 billion) from Halid Bin Yaacob a Malaysian national, by falsely pretending that they were in a position to sell 500kg of gold to him on December 27, 2023.
According to the prosecution, the suspects were arrested on December 27, 2023, in Kileleshwa, Nairobi by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations in the midst of a transactional meeting to fraud the complainant who is a Malaysian national.
When the case came up for mention today, the prosecution applied for more time to enable the DPP to serve the defence with the remaining documents before fixing the hearing date.
The magistrate granted the request and directed the case to be mentioned on August 7 to confirm the compliance.
It is reported that they were on the verge of a 500-kilogramme semi-refined gold bar fraud scam.
The suspects are alleged to have visibly shocked, the complainant who landed in Kenya from Kuala Lumpur on December 25, 2023, following an invitation by Rock Africa miner operated by the suspects.
According to the police, in a well-choreographed scheme, they had set up an operational base in a house in Kileleshwa with fully furnished office-style rooms to steal from unsuspecting foreign nationals.
Yacoob was to meet the seven to finalise on the first shipment of 50 kg refined gold, per kilogram going for Sh7.2 million.
It is further said that the 500-kilogramme gold amounting to Sh2.85 billion was to be sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo.