- Counterfeit banknotes remain the top form of fraud for the increasingly growing mobile money and bank agents in Kenya.
- In June 2017 Central Bank of Kenya acknowledged the possibility of a transnational fake currency ring in Nairobi and the region.
Police recovered Sh19 million in fake US dollars after an operation on fake diamonds ring led them to the recovery in Kilimani area, Nairobi.
The detectives from DCI headquarters said the fake currency concealed in a briefcase, was recovered when they were effecting the arrest of a couple, believed to have swindled a Nairobi-based management consultant over Sh11 million in a diamonds scam.
This followed a report filled by the complainant after what first appeared to be a lucrative venture turned out to be fraud.
DCI boss George Kinoti said the woman was tricked into investing in the dubious trade by one engineer Irungu, who introduced himself as her former trainee.
Irungu introduced her to a man said to be a Botswana national, Peter Malobe, who required a feasibility study prior to investing in middle-income housing.
Malobe also turned out to be an established dealer in the export of diamonds to an Australian-based company, known as BHP.
“All the complainant needed to do was be part of the diamonds export business to start reaping big from it and establish a financial empire,” Kinoti said.
Finding the deal too good, the woman swallowed the bait.
She was tricked into parting with colossal sums of money for license acquisition from the Ministry of Mining, the customs and clearance fees for the diamonds, penalties, stamps and transfer fees among other charges that kept coming up every step of the way, especially when she demanded for payment.
By the time she realised she was a victim, she had lost Sh11 million.
Serious crimes and CRIB detectives managed to arrest a couple in whose accounts the funds were channeled.
Sh19 million in fake US dollars was also recovered from the suspects, who are facing charges of obtaining money by false pretences, police said.
Cases of handling fake money have in the past months been on a decrease due to police operations.
Dozens of suspects have in the past months been arrested in connection with the incidents and charged in court.
Police investigations show counterfeit banknotes remain the top form of fraud for the increasingly growing mobile money and bank agents in Kenya.
In June 2017, Central Bank of Kenya acknowledged the possibility of a transnational fake currency ring in Nairobi and the region.
CBK and other East African Community central banks held a joint meeting with the Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation in September 2016 to develop strategies for enhancing the fight against counterfeit crime, one of the emerging transnational crimes.
The bank regulator had conducted a survey in 2017 that showed 97 per cent of fraud faced by the agents involved fake notes.
The February 27, 2019 discovery of a cache of fake foreign cash amounting to Sh32 billion in a residential house in Ruiru town, was the biggest incident that followed a series of similar cases in the past few years.
In June 2018, the High Court in Nairobi condemned a Niger and Cameroonian to 10 years in jail for possession of an estimated Sh110 billion in counterfeit currency.
The two were also in possession of tools for making fake banknotes. The trial took two-and-a-half years, following the foreigners’ arrest in Nairobi’s Diamond Park II in 2016.
On March 19, 2019, police seized fake Sh2 billion in a safety box at Barclays Bank, Queensway branch.
On October 1, 2018, police in Nairobi recovered fake money valued at Sh1 billion. Three suspects were nabbed. The money was found in a house along Brookside drive at Brookside gardens in Westlands.
-Edited by SKanyara