Kenyan authorities have cracked down on an elaborate fake gold scam that duped a Georgian merchant out of over $6 million, arresting one suspect and seizing a cache of counterfeit cash and fake gold nuggets.
According to the DCI, Frederick Thuranira M’mburi was apprehended on Wednesday night at a residence in Utawala’s Githunguri area, where detectives uncovered a staggering 23,600 counterfeit $100 notes stuffed into travel bags and a steel box. Additionally, eight green canvas bags containing approximately 10kg of fake gold nuggets each were confiscated from the premises.
The arrest stems from a complaint filed by a Georgian national who reported losing over $6 million in a fraudulent 161,000kg gold deal orchestrated by racketeers posing as legitimate traders.
“The merchant of Georgia reported to have traded tonnes of gold bars with a Ghanaian partner through a letter of administration before the High Court of Justice in Ghana, thereafter spending $6,090,500 on movement of the consignment from Ghana to Kenya, documentation and storage services,” the DCI statement read.
“Preliminary investigations by OSU detectives reveal that the victim was duped from the word ‘Go’ by a well-organized ring of scammers whose names and machinations are not new to court records, and that no such amounts of real or fake gold were ever transported to Kenya from Ghana,” the DCI added.
