A Nairobi court has ordered a Benin national to be detained at Capitol Hill Police Station for 10 days to allow the DCI officer to complete Investigations on a Gold scam business.
Seargent Charles Odhiambo an investigator attached to DCI Headquarters in Nairobi through his affidavit dated September 28, 2024, prayed the court to give an order to hold in custody Salem Frejus Hector Jeyau Ahossi for 10 days to allow him to conclude Investigations regarding USD 5,478,417.7.
Odhiambo told Milimani Chief Magistrate Lucas Onyina that Ahossi was arrested on Friday last week and detained at Capitol Hill police station in connection with conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money by false pretences.
The matter was reported at Capitol Hill police station on Sunday by one Maxime Haroune Sawadogo accompanied by Atinho Dessoundo from Canada where he said to have been introduced into a gold sale and purchase transaction on August 17, 2022, in Canada,
“The respondent informed the complainant that he had business partners in Africa who had a lot of gold for sale and he had identified buyers of the said gold from Belgium.”
The respondent informed the complainant that the remaining for the business to succeed was the investment of the gold in preparation for sale.
He was lured that the gold owners offered the consignment for sale at USD 35,000 per kilogram and when the sale was done, he was willing to share the realized profit by half.
The respondent added that his African business partners are willing to offer 8,000 kilograms of gold within six months which would realize a profit of 270,000,000 Canadian dollars.
The said monies were transferred to the suspect between August 31 and September 1, 2022 the payments were made directly through bank transfers as per instructions.
In the end, he informed the complainant that the gold consignment had been taken to Kenya where it would be transported to Belgium this being a way to evade Dubai taxes where it was supposed to go through.
He was forced to come to Kenya where he also met the respondent with another team of Kenyan agents who were introduced to him.
He was taken into an office located in an undisclosed posh location within Nairobi. He was shown an alleged gold consignment which was in two boxes but he was not allowed to inspect it before he was told to pay a further amount for failure which would risk losing the consignment being sold to another buyer.
During that point, he realized that he had been scammed and sought legal action from a law firm in Nairobi and later reported the matter.
The Investigating officer prayed the court to grant him 10 days to hold the suspect to trace and record statements from unsuspecting foreign investors dealing with the respondents or his agents.
He also wanted time to lease with the embassies of the countries mentioned in the fraud and Interpol to process the respondent legally due to the complication of the matter,
“Your honour I am requesting for more time to complete the forensic analysis of the two mobile phones confiscated from the respondent since we believe they have been used in the fraud scheme,” the officer pleaded.
He finally urged the court they don’t want him to leave the court’s jurisdiction since he is a Benin national with a permanent residency in Canada and does not have a fixed place of abode in Kenya since he was arrested at a restaurant in Nairobi.