The national spy agency, National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and other security sector agencies have trained their antennae on the never drying cash taps of foreign gaming company, Mozzart Bet, for what is suspected to be usage of Ad (advertising) fraud and suspected abuse of charities for money laundering and tax evasion.
Instead of inviting the Fourth Estate during their donation drives, the company, currently under probe for money laundering by the Serious Crimes Unit, Economic and Commercial Crimes Unit (ECCU), both domiciled within the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Mozzart Bet has opted to place paid up adverts to gain control of their self-proclaimed philanthropy drive.
Mozzart Kenya is represented by Goran Vuković country manager and Saša Krneta as his deputy country manager.
These schemes are carefully engineered and because the funds pass through many hands, across multiple international jurisdictions it’s impossible to track.
And because the funds are shared with multiple intermediaries – the fraudsters are protected from detection by design.
According to report prepared by the Tax Crimes and Money Laundering Sub-Group of Working Party No. 8 surveyed in 19 countries identified “ (m) Misuse of charity funds by charities and (n) Manipulation of the values of donated assets” as the most commonly detected methods and schemes used to commit tax evasion and money laundering involving the abuse of charities.
In the recent past, Mozzart Bet, a South East Europe based betting firm has placed a flurry paid up adverts of the all welcome donations of medical equipment at Pumwani Maternity Hospital valued at Sh3million, Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) among others.
In one of the paid up advert, the firm said they have set aside Sh200million in the fight against Covid-19.
MozzartBet is in the spotlight after a State agency questioned the source of more than Sh600 million the company had wired to a businessman’s bank accounts in a span of five months.
In court documents, the Assets Recovery Agency has flagged the transactions as suspicious, questioning the source of Sh640 million that the betting firm wired to Kimaco Connections between February and August last year.
This indicates that the agency believes the money was not generated from gambling activities under MozzartBet, which operates in a sector that has recently come under increased scrutiny from the State.
The ARA, which is seeking to seize and forfeit the cash to the State, has dismissed MozzartBet’s explanation that it paid the money to acquire from Kimaco Connections a software, which the latter subcontracted another firm — Open Skies Management Services, —to deliver.
Peter Kiilu, the owner of Kimaco Connections, allegedly wired Sh242 million to Open Skies Management Services, which is owned by Zimbabwean Emmanuel Charumbira and a shareholder of Mozzartbet.
The agency says that the unclear source and wiring of the cash to a web of accounts, including some owned by MozzartBet, point to a money laundering scheme.