Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations have arrested a suspect wanted for allegedly defrauding a Nakuru-based nursing home Ksh948,000 in a false shipping deal.
Samuel Mwenda Mutua, whose company trades as World Freight Logistics Limited, is said to have been contracted by St. Joseph’s Maternity and Nursing Home to deliver hospital equipment but went under after receiving the payment.
According to the DCI, the deal was signed last year.
The equipment, which were to be shipped from China, included hospital beds, mortuary equipment, theater beds and a dental chair.
Fraud suspect Samuel Mwendwa Mutua who defrauded a nursing home over Sh948,000 in a false shipping deal has been arrested by detectives based at DCI Headquarters.
The 50-year-old suspect, whose company trades as World Freight Logistics Limited, had in 2020 been contracted by pic.twitter.com/iUJaiO3BzD
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) June 23, 2021
The DCI detailed that the first payment of Ksh407,000 to the 50-year-old Nairobi resident was made on November 6, 2020.
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The money, which was transferred from Equity Bank, was deposited to the suspect’s company account being payment for freight charges.
The payment, DCI said, was made after the China-based vendor consolidated the shipment into a 40-feet container and settled it on Oceanus Intn’l Logistics (Shenzen) Co. Ltd as guided by the suspect.
When the goods arrived in the country on Dec 8, 2020, the hospital had applied for a clearance permit from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, before releasing Ksh158,200 to the suspect’s bank account being shipping line charges and container deposits.
An extra Ksh383,000 was on April 4, 2021, sent to the suspect to cater for Kenya Ports Authority rent and the World Freight Logistics agency fee, the latter amounting to Ksh183,000.
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It was after receiving the entire amount of Ksh948,200 that the suspect cut communication with the hospital after a series of false promises that his company would deliver the goods at the hospital’s facility.
“The hospital would later make their complaint at DCI’s Complaints Directorate after learning that not only had the suspect defrauded them, but also had their shipment auctioned on overstay grounds at the Embakasi ICD,” DCI said in a statement on Wednesday.
In its investigations, the DCI established that despite receiving the Ksh948,200 from the hospital, the suspect neither paid the freight charges to Oceanus Co. Ltd, rent to KPA nor the container deposits.
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“Further, swift transfer forms presented by the suspect alleging to have paid USD 3275 to the China-based company as freight charges was found to be fake,” added DCI.
Mutua is being processed for arraignment to face charges of obtaining money by false pretences and forgery/making a document without lawful authority.
Members of the public, who may have been duped by the suspect, have been asked to file reports at the DCI Headquarters -Operations Directorate.
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