A key suspect in a series of frauds affecting local and foreign gold merchants was Thursday arraigned at Milimani Law Courts, after he was arrested Tuesday evening for obtaining Sh35 million from a businessman in a fake gold scam.
In the fraudulent scheme orchestrated on diverse dates between July 13 and October 18, 2023, 28-year-old Nahashon Otieno Angudha is accused of swindling the victim out of the millions by luring him to a purchase and export deal of 100 kilos of gold to Dubai, the amount being fees for transportation and insurance.
After parting with the money which was paid in US dollars ($250,000), nine gold bars given to the victim as collateral were subjected to a test at the Ministry of Mining, but none of them exhibited even a trace of gold element.
Angutha then holed up leaving the businessman devastated and poorer, thereby seeking the intervention of law enforcers.
Acting on intelligence, the Operation Support Unit (OSU) detectives conducted a stealth operation at Crystal Spring Apartments in Lavington, Nairobi, managing to net the suspect while in a Toyota Prado.
Crucial exhibits including radio sets and cheque books were seized from the vehicle.
Angudha was arraigned with conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money by false pretenses.
He pleaded not guilty to both charges and has been remanded until Friday, April 12, 2024 when bond determination will be made.
The objection to release him on bond by the prosecution followed his criminal record, noting that he is implicated in a robbery with violence case at the Kibera court for jointly with his two accomplices robbing a foreign couple over USD90,000 when they jetted into the country for a gold business.
In the October 28, 2023 case, Nahashon Otieno, Jack Ouma Okwiri and Felix Ochieng’ Nyongesa lured an Australian man and his Ugandan wife to an office setup in the Runda suburbs, before turning against the couple.
The man was beaten up and the wife sexually assaulted, before the gang robbed and dumped them at Rehema House in Nairobi CBD.
After days of relentless manhunt, the three were arrested at the Social House Nairobi Hotel in Lavington area and arraigned at Kibera Law Courts on November 9, 2023 charged with robbery with violence.
They were released on a Sh1 million bond with an alternative of Sh300,000 cash bail.
This is the latest such case involving foreigners conned over their rush to get cheap gold from Kenya.
Officials have always advised foreigners seeking to get gold from Kenya to always liaise with their embassies as part of efforts to avoid being conned.
