Businessman Paul Kobia tells the court that he has never conducted business nor receiving any money from Italiano Antonio Cianci who claims to be defrauded Sh 14 million in a gold scam business.
Kobia who was put to defence before the Milimani senior resident magistrate Zainabu Abdul said that he met the complainant once when he visited his business partner a French national but he has never been in business agreement with him.
Explaining to the court, Kobia said he invited his friend a French National one Jean Marlon Emmanuel to share his office with him although he was operating his business independently.
Jean operated a company in the name of Duaf International and Malca Amit Limited which according to him was licenced to trade in buying, importing and exporting gold.
He told the court that according to the testimony by Jean, there was an agreement between two companies, Dwaf International and Malca Amit Limited where Jean was the director and Iron and Steel DMCC in Dubai where Italiano is the director and he owns none of the two.
Though they operated in the same office he was not concerned on how Jean run his business since he focused on his own nut company majored in buying macadamia nuts from farmers and exporting oversees.
He vehemently denied the charge of obtaining money by false pretenses telling the court that he is not a shareholder of Dwaf International and he has never transacted any business or received money through the company.
He narrated to the court what happened on that material day he was arrested without being aware of what was going on, in his office which was situated at Riverside Drive,
“I was informed by the security guard who was manning at the gate that there were police officers who wanted to get in and innocently i directed him to let them in,” he said.
While sitting in his office, armed police officers about 50 in number raided in to his office turning everything a mess, ordering the staffs to sit on the he floor and surrender their phones.
He thought they were terrorists according to the way they were dressing armed with AK 47 riffles and they were very furious when they approached him.
They firstly introduced themselves to be police officers from the DCI headquarters and they started to harass him without giving time to say a word or enquire what was going on.
He said one of the officers who referred as Charity was very angry with him and as soon as they entered in to his office she ordered him to sit on the floor or get shot,
“Charity forced me to sit on the floor and i obeyed her orders. She continued to threaten me that I will lot in prison,” he narrated.
At that moment everything was turned upside down by other officers breaking doors to access other rooms gathering documents and putting them together in cartons and in the bags they were carrying.
The officers do the search for about one hour where they took their phones and put them in one bag together with other documents.
Kobia claims to know what was happening after he was arrested and informed the alleged crime.
He was charged alongside 14 others with obtaining USD 140,000 equivalent to Sh 14,000,000 from Italiano Antonio a director of Iron and Steel DMC in Dubai on April 25, 2019, by falsely pretending he had a genuine gold for sale a fact which was false.
He separately faced other charges of forging official stamps resembling those of Kenya Revenue Authority, Ministry of Mining, Director of Geological Survey, Central Bank of Kenya, Registrar of Companies Kenya, Executive Office of the Presidency (procurement) and Chief Magistrate Court Nairobi Kenya.
He defended himself telling the court that he has never forged any of the said stamps nor having the equipments to make them.
He denied the allegations that the equipments which were said to be confiscated from his offfice at Riverside Drive belongs to him and he came to see them in court,
“Your honor I have never seen or handled the equipments said were used in the series of stamps forgeries from my office,” he defended.
Charging alongside is Tanya Yvonne Goes who also defended herself telling the court she was a secretary at Jean’s office where her role was to answer calls from clients, replying of emails sent and he was not involved in any other business,
“Your honor my role was that of a secretary and I could not enquire my boss about other things I was not entitled,” she defended.
Tanya urged the magistrate to acquite her on ground that she was arrested simply because she was found in that office but she had no idea of how his boss operated the business.
Jean Marlon Emmanuel, a friend to Kobia and the director of Dwaf International and Malca Amit Limited denied the allegations of being involved in a fake gold scam where he told the court he is licenced by the government to do the business.
He defended himself by telling the court there was an agreement between his Company and Iron and Steel DMCC in Dubai where Antonio was the director.
Jean admitted his company received money amounting to USD 140,000 equivalent to Sh 14,000,000 from Iron and Steel which it’s purposes was for tax facilitation.
He told the court that exporting gold he was required to pay a tax of 25 percent while importing he was required to pay 5 percent,
“Your honor the money which the complainant claimed to lose was for tax facilitation where the tax was paid to the government and I lost USD 1 million after the deal was interfered with,” said Jean.
He also told the court that the agreement was between both companies to deposit USD 1000,000 each when they kicked off the deal and as per now he lost the amount he deposited.
He added that the business he has been doing is genuine and he knew where to source pure gold for his clients even today.
Jean denied the fact of conducting business with Antonio but admitted it was a company to company business where the monies was deposited in the company’s accounts.
When he was asked by the state prosecutor whether he is willing to supply gold to the complainant or refund the money, he said it is impossible since he lost USD 1 million in the deal,
“Your honor it is impossible since I lost one million dollars in that business deal,” replied Jean.
The court further heard that there was a similar civil suit before a Dubai court where he lost the case to Antonio for what he said to have never attended the court sessions since his passport had been confiscated by the court.
The prosecution confirmed the same that in Dubai where this matter emanated was filed as civil while here in Kenya the matter was filed as criminal.
He pleaded with the court to consider him acquitted because he operates a legit business registered in Kenya and in Dubai.
The matter will be mentioned on March 14 this year for further directions.