Following Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary on gold scams that happen in Zimbabwe led by Kamlesh Pattni, police in Kenya have stepped up the hunt for gold scammers in the country. Currently, Two suspects, Nicholas Otieno Ndolo and Thomas “Tom” Otieno Ngoe, were on this week arraigned before Kibera Senior Principal Magistrate Charles Mwaniki over allegations of gold scamming.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) sought to detain them for 14 days pending investigations into the matter.
The complainant, who is a foreigner, had been introduced to Ndolo as a businessman dealing in the gold business.
They had agreed on the purchase of 3,000kg of gold at USD 41,000 per kg, totalling USD 123,000,000.
Ndolo provided an Equity Bank Account to the foreigner for the wired money.
However, the complainant later realized that some of the documents related to the purchase of the gold, such as the customs entry, were not genuine.
According to detectives, Ndolo started to avoid meeting the complainant and even threatened him with deportation from Kenya, prompting the foreigner to make a report at DCI Operations Support Unit.
Upon investigations at Equity Bank, where the money was wired, it was discovered that the bank account was operated by Thomas Otieno Ngoe, the second suspect.
The detectives claim that the rest of the amount had been transferred to other accounts.
Further investigations by the detectives led to the recovery of a firearm from the vehicle the suspects were driving.
The firearm is believed to have been used in other crimes and is therefore subject to further forensic analysis to establish how it was acquired by the second suspect.
DCI has stated that investigations into the matter are still ongoing, and they aim to recover the defrauded money.
But as DCI continues chasing small boys in the gold scamming trade, the godfathers of gold scams are walking free in Kenya and wining and dining with the high and mighty. It is believed that the likes of Ngoe report to the masters of scam, Richard Kubo Onyango and Paul Kobia. They are deputized by Chris Obure who can’t spell 1 to 10 backwards. Kubo runs an aeroplane company that is used to smuggle gold from Congo to other parts of the world. His principal partner is celebrated fraudster Paul Kobia who has over the years been arrested over gold scamming. Kubo on the other hand has never been arrested and is rumoured to be untouchable. It’s his ‘watu wa mkono’ like Noe who gladly go to jail on his behalf. The police should stop preferential treatment and arrest all these gold scammers giving Kenya a bad name internationally.
Richard Kubo Onyango
The suspects are currently in custody even though they pleaded with the police to go after their masters, something the Kenya Police are not willing to do, as the probe continues.
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