The Assets Recovery Agency has asked a court to freeze the accounts of a university student who fraudulently transferred Sh41 million from I&M Bank to himself.
Documents filed in court say Timothy Kang’arua devised an intricate scheme to defraud the bank using its login credentials in the Safaricom web portal.
“It was a complex scheme where Kang’arua registered over 300 Safaricom lines using ID cards of unsuspecting Kenyans,” the agency said.
Kang’arua is a student at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
The agency said the list of owners of the ID cards initially appeared like that of beneficiaries. After registering the lines, Kang’arua opened bank accounts with Equity Bank using the details in the ID cards.
Detective Jackson Nzau said the fraudulent transaction was done in November 2017. He said Kang’arua and accomplices fraudulently transferred Sh41,000,000 from I&M’s Party Paybill Number 517822 to other persons and later to himself.
“The players in this complex scheme, included persons in the employment of I&M, who uploaded funds from the Safaricom portal using the bank’s party login credentials to the primary list of beneficiaries mobile phone lines,” Nzau says.
The cash was then transferred to the accounts of the beneficiaries at Equity Bank and eventually to Kang’arua’s account. The student has an account with Equity Bank.
The agency wants the court to issue a preservation order prohibiting him from transacting, withdrawing, transferring funds held in his name at Equity Bank for 90 days.
ARA says the funds held in the account are proceeds of crime.
“There are no court orders currently preserving the funds and there is imminent danger the student will dispose of, transfer, withdraw and dissipate the said assets unless this court issues preservation orders as prayed in this application,” the affidavit reads.
ARA said investigations have established that the deposits and withdrawals were made in tranches below Sh1,000,000 to evade the reporting threshold put by the Central Bank of Kenya.
Any withdrawals beyond Sh1 million must be reported and the account holder asked to declare the source of the money.
On November 17, 2017, Lemuel Wanjiru received Sh827,500. The funds were on the same date transferred to Kang’arua’s account.
On the same day, Simon Wahome received Sh757,600 while Collins Kaguchia received Sh897,150. Both tranches were subsequently transferred to Kang’arua’s account.