An American national is seeking to recover 30,000 US Dollars (Sh3million) she was allegedly defrauded by a gold scamming syndicate in Nairobi having made the payments through an account domiciled at Stanbic Bank under bearing the account name of Ndeda & Company Advocates, The Informer can authoritatively reveal.
According to Maurene North, a United States of America national and Chief Executive Officer of Deenorth Investors LLC, she made the payment to an escrow bank account nominated by a person identified as Joshua bearing the name of Ndeda and Company Advocates, account number 0100007138428.
“Joshua had earlier made a similar offer for five kilograms. On March 4, 2021 I transferred the sum of 30,000 US Dollars from Deenorth Investors JPMorgan Chase Bank account number 679429552 to Joshua’s nominated escrow bank account with the account name as Ndeda and Company at Stanbic Bank Kenya account number 0100007138428.” Maureen’s petition addressed to the Deputy Inspector General of Police Edward Mbugua dated November 10, 2021 reads in part.
Maureen is being represented by her attorney Rodney Amollo of Rachier & Amollo Advocates.
When contacted, Ndeda and Company Advocates managing partner Stephen Ndeda did not deny the law firm having received the said money but instead referred The Informer team to his partner Muli Masika.
“Talk to my partner Muli he handled the transaction.” Stephen said.
When contacted by us on phone, Muli said he was unwell and has rushed to the hospital.
However, Stanbic Bank Chief Executive Officer Charles Mudiwa did not respond to our queries by the time of going to publication.
Cases of gold scamming syndicates have been on the rise in the country with the masterminds targeting both unsuspecting local and foreign buyers.
This week, Kenya was cited as a notable regional hub for illegal fake currency and gold smuggling.
The business popularly known as “wash wash” among young Kenyans is commonly known as investment fraud.
This has prompted authorities to warn of a possible takeover of Parliament by these shrewd operatives.
“We will end up with up to 40 per cent holders of elective office being well-known wash-wash dealers. Those are the ones who are hiring crowds. In some constituencies, the people we are profiling and investigating, people on (Directorate of Criminal Investigations Director George) Kinoti’s radar, are the leading candidates,” Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i told a recent public forum on elections.
In recent years detectives have arrested suspects over the wash-wash business and fake gold merchants.
Foreigners have fallen victim to a fake gold scam which has led to loss of millions of shillings.
In September this year, an Indian investor lost Sh200 million to fake gold dealers who packed stones for him and asked him to wait for his consignment back home.
Back in December five suspects were arrested for allegedly defrauding a Korean national Sh2.9 million in a fake gold scam.
The suspects were arrested by detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Serious Crimes Unit following a complaint by the victim identified as Song Sung.
Song told detectives that he was initially shown some well-packed bars that he was made to believe were genuine gold at a company in Karen.
In November 2021, he recounted to the court how businessman Paul Kobia and 13 others accused of Sh14 million gold scams lured him to a house on Riverside Drive, Nairobi.
Italian Antonio Cianci, who is a director of a Dubai-based company known as Iron & Steel DMCC, told Milimani senior resident magistrate Zainabu Abdul that the accused persons claimed the house had pure gold for sale.
Cianci said that on April 25, 2019, he lost Sh14 million after being duped that he had bought genuine gold worth $1,198,000.
The court heard that the accused persons obtained the money by falsely pretending they had genuine gold for sale.
Kobia is charged alongside his 13 employees. They are alleged to have conspired to defraud Cianci Director of Iron and Steel DMCC from Arab Emirates US dollars 14,000 (Sh14 million) by displaying metal boxes purporting them to be genuine gold bars.
