Police have arrested 31 suspects linked to fake gold scam targeting two Dubai-based businessmen in Runda, Ridgeways and Industrial Area in Nairobi.
The group is accused of defrauding the businessmen of approximately USD 39,900 by posing as legitimate gold dealers.
According to the Directorate of Criminal investigations (DCI), the suspects had on diverse dates in September, 2024 paraded coated off base metals to hoodwink and lure the two foreigners into a business deal.
After collecting the funds, the suspects disappeared, prompting the businessmen to report the matter to the DCI.
“After making several trips to the country and into the opulent offices in which the scammers operated, the victims grew suspicious of the excuses made on why the 35kg of gold they had bought was not being exported to Dubai as agreed, thereby reporting the suspected fraud at DCI,” DCI indicates.
The raids saw the seizure of four motor vehicles, metal boxes containing fake gold nuggets and bars, several radio sets, fake stamps and authorization certificates for various ministries in the government.
Other items confiscated include branded reflector jackets, Kenya and East African flags which have been secured at a police exhibit store as evidence in the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, interrogation on the suspects has since revealed some notorious faces in the illegal business as the masterminds of the scheme, including the suspected leader of the syndicate, Nashon Otieno Angudha, a serial who has two similar active cases in court.
In one of the cases that is coming up for mention tomorrow at Milimani Law Courts, he is charged with conspiracy to defraud.
In the second case, Angudha and his co-accused, Felix Ochieng Nyongesa and Jack Ouma Okwiri, are accused of attacking, robbing, and sexually assaulting previous scam targets, an Australian man and his Ugandan wife.
