An American has become the latest victim of the ongoing gold scam in the country after losing $183,600 to fraudsters operating in Nairobi.
The victim, identified as Shelby Laney, a manager at Hi-Tech Precious Metals and Refinery (PMR), which claims to be a Dallas, Texas-based refiner of precious metals such as silver, gold, platinum and palladium, was lured by fraudsters in Nairobi operating from a warehouse in Mlolongo.
Attracted by the possibility of getting her hands on the precious metal, Shelby, who had been working with the scammers online, flew to the country to check the quality of the goods before making a purchase.
While there, she paid part of the freight for the first shipment, an instalment of 60 kilos of gold bars, but in the meantime she became suspicious of the transaction and decided to alert the DCI.
She told detectives that the fraudsters, operating under the name Kelot Logistics and Storage Limited, took her on a tour of the warehouse where they conducted fake laser tests to determine the carat weight of the precious metal pieces and showed her dozens of sealed wooden crates that had been packed with "finished gold" ready for shipment.
In her confession to detectives, Shelby added that she was also shown a box full of foreign currency which the fraudsters claimed was payment for the gold to be delivered.
She was also shown a fake mineral export permit purportedly signed by the Commissioner of Customs, a fake cargo insurance certificate and a fake C17B form declaring the items in her cargo.
The forged documents indicated that the cargo of 60kg, contained in a metal box and sealed in a wooden crate, would leave JKIA for Dallas on 19 May, but as of Monday she had not received the shipment.
On Sunday night, detectives raided the warehouse, recovered the fake KRA documents including two staff ID cards and arrested three suspects namely Anthony Ombu Ondiek the owner of the warehouse, Henry Onyango Ogeya and Henry Momanyi Nyabuti his accomplices.
Also recovered were sealed wooden crates that Shelby had been told were full of gold to be shipped to customers abroad.
When the detectives opened the cargo boxes on Monday morning, they found them empty, those that contained something were stacked with cement bags hidden underneath fabricated compartments of metal boxes and in others, assorted paraphernalia including toy frogs, old women's handbags, an old satellite phone and clothes.
"This is how they fool their clients into thinking they have gold ready to be shipped, when in fact they have nothing," the detective added.
Shelby is the latest foreigner to fall for gold scams in the country, despite warnings from authorities.
Detectives warned that the scam is now getting uglier and involving very high profile individuals in the country.
"We cannot reveal the identity of the victim at the moment because it may alert the chain of fraudsters that we are after them," a detective privy to the matter told the Nation yesterday.
In April, detectives arrested three suspects involved in a scam to sell gold worth Sh65 million to an Iranian national.
A statement from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations said the three, two Kenyans and a Congolese national, had promised to sell 60 kilos of gold worth Sh65 million to Sadegh Sadeghan.
Sadegh became suspicious when they failed to deliver the consignment on time and called the police for help, leading to the arrest of the three and the recovery of a gun, ammunition, a firearms certificate and over half a million in cash, among other items.
In May, a Dubai-based company sued the Chief Registrar of Judges Anne Amadi for allegedly being involved in a fake gold sale deal in which it lost Sh89 million through her law firm.
Ms Amadi, her son Brian Ochieng, two other Kenyans and a Liberian national are accused by Bruton Gold Trading LLC of buying 1,500 kilos of gold bars in 2021 that were never delivered.
She has since distanced herself from the matter, claiming she is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the law firm registered in her name.
