Suspect faces Sh200m fake gold scam charges

A Kenyan suspect will on Thursday arraigned on charges of obtaining money by false pretense. 

The suspect, Hezron Nyabola, is accused of being involved in a Sh200 million fake gold scam.

The complainant, an investor based in India identified as Malian Sanjay, is counting losses after he sent 1,780,000 US dollars to Cavalho Lopes, a fraudster from Guinea Bissau, who instead of sending him gold, sent a consignment of river pebbles.

Lopes styled himself as a gold dealer and obtained the money from Sanjay on the pretext that he would sell him 44.45kgs worth of gold.

Investigations by detectives from the Serious Crimes Unit established that the fake gold was shipped from Guinea Bissau through Kigali and Nairobi.

Once the 'goods' left Kigali, Sanjay received confirmation from Lopes that the shipment was in transit to Nairobi. A few days later, he received a call from a man, who has now been identified to be Nyabola,  purporting to be from the Kenya Revenue Authority.

Nyabola informed the Indian investor that his consignment had been detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport over nonpayment of customs duty.

Sanjay sent 26,700 US dollars to clear the consignment.

However, the investor became suspicious when the gold failed to arrive in India within the agreed time. He the help of DCI, who investigated the matter and seized the consignment at JKIA.

The detectives found that the 'gold' worth Sh195 million was nothing but river bed pebbles neatly arranged in a box.