Four suspects who were arrested on Friday will appear in court today for allegedly stealing Sh72,619,951 from Kenya Commercial Bank.
They are Benson Mwai Karugu, Edmund Kirturi Mutua, Evans Kenda Kiplagat and Macdonald Mochama Mongwe.
The DCI said on Twitter the suspects, who are employees of the bank, transferred the cash in smaller amounts.
“The stolen cash was later domiciled with various banks in Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Malindi,” the DCI said.
Thirty-seven fictitious merchant companies were registered with KCB to facilitate the fraud.
“Evidence gathered showed that 37 fictitious merchant companies were registered with KCB to facilitate the fraud through fraudulent point of sale card transaction claims which were approved by the four suspects. The money was sent to the companies’ account as POS card settlements,” the DCI tweeted.
The agency reported that the cash was shared among the suspects through M-Pesa.
This follows more reports by the police of bank staff stealing from their customers.
A Diamond Trust Bank manager was recently charged in Milimani with stealing Sh25 million from customers' fixed deposit accounts. Harambee Front Office manager Habil Onyango was also charged for stealing Sh1,783,392 from the vault while Family Bank Relations Officer
Abel Onyango,
through swapping SIM cards, accessed customers’ accounts and withdrew Sh1.5 million without their knowledge.
On August 17, DCI boss George Kinoti told banks, mobile money service providers and regulators that many cases of fraud are by their employees. He advised them to do thorough background checks before engaging them.
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