The main suspect accused of defrauding a Malaysia investor Ksh37.5 million, while pretending he would sell him 300 kilograms of gold, was on Thursday, April 11, 2024, charged before the Milimani Magistrate's Court.
Nashon Otieno Angudha, a Kenyan businessman linked to a series of fraud cases affecting local and foreign gold merchants, appeared before Milimani Magistrate Gibert Shikwe and denied two charges of conspiracy to commit a felony and obtaining money by false pretences from the foreign investor Surinder Singh Kanda.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) informed the court that Otieno committed the fraudulent scheme on diverse dates between July 13 and October 18, 2023, at Runda Glory Valley in Nairobi county.
The court heard that the 28-year-old businessman swindled the victim out of $250,000 (equivalent to Ksh37,5 million) by luring him to purchase and export 300kgs of gold to Dubai.
Otieno is said to have obtained the money from Kanda claiming the same was to hire a private jet, payment of insurance and taxes for 300kgs of gold which was to be transported from Kenya to Dubai.
Investigations conducted by DCI detectives revealed that after the complainant parted with the money which was paid in US dollars ($250,000), nine gold bars were given to him as collateral.
Kanda immediately subjected the nine gold bars to a test at the Ministry of Mining to ascertain whether it was gold, but to his shock, none of them exhibited even a trace of a gold element.
After the revelation, Otieno immediately went under leaving the victim devastated, thereby seeking the intervention of law enforcers.
Acting on intelligence, the Operation Support Unit (OSU) detectives conducted an operation at Crystal Spring Apartments in Lavington, Nairobi and managed to net the suspect while in his Toyota Prado.
The police searched his car and crucial exhibits including radio sets and chequebooks were seized.
After denying the two charges, the prosecution vehemently opposed the suspect's release on bail saying he is a serial offender.
"We oppose the release of the accused person on bond terms since he is a habitual offender who has another capital offence of robbery with violence the Kibera court no. 5 for conspiring with his two accomplices to rob a foreign couple over USD90,000 when they jetted into the country for a gold business," the state prosecutor informed the magistrate.
The court heard that Otieno, Jack Ouma Okwiri and Felix Ochieng' Nyongesa on October 28, 2023, lured an Australian man and his Ugandan wife to an office setup in the Runda suburbs over a gold deal but they violently robbed them of Ksh11.9 million.
"Your honour the man was beaten up and the wife sexually assaulted, before the gang robbed and dumped them at Rehema House in Nairobi CBD. This is how this accused person before you is a threat to the public. Let him be detained," the prosecution stated.
On his side, Otieno urged the court to release him on bail stating he will abide by all conditions set by the court including not interfering with the key witnesses in the case.
Magistrate Shikwe ordered the accused person to be detained at the Industrial Area Remand Prison until Friday, April 12, 2024, when he will render his ruling on the bail application.
