A 30-year-old man was on Friday, July 22, 2022, charged before Milimani Law Courts with hacking Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) systems and causing about a Ksh100 million loss.
Dickens Otura Olwala denied five counts of aiding and abetting, impersonation of a KRA officer, unauthorized access and interference with the Authority systems and acquisition, possession and use of proceeds of crime before Magistrate Wandia Nyamu.
He is accused of fraudulently causing the loss of Ksh 97,242,69 for tax assessment raised with nine companies and a businessman from the Kenya Revenue Authority after allegedly interfering with the institution’s computer systems over the course of one year from October 2021 to June 2022.
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The firms which Otura is accused to have aided in the illegal vacation of assessment raised in KRA systems are Exclusive Investment Ltd, Eye-Queue Limited, and Peak E. A African Investment, Lakezal Enterprises Limited, Burder Construction Limited, Danki Ventures Limited, Wake Construction Limited, Toronto Merchants Limited, Remington Group Limited and businessman Abdikadir Mohammed Abdi.
The accused was arrested in a multi-agency security operation that was conducted within Nairobi on Thursday after police received information that the institution was losing cash through suspicious electronic transactions.
The prosecution alleges that Otura, with intent to defraud KRA of millions of shillings, has been masquerading as a KRA staff where he was able to access the Authority office premises, computers and other resources for over a year now since October 2021.
The fake KRA officer is said to have been committing the offences together with other suspects who are at large and being sought by DCI detectives.
"On various dates between October 2021 and June 2021 in Nairobi county, Otura intentionally and without authorization interfered with KRA computer systems and data and jointly with others, not before court vacated assessment from the Authorities system that had been raised against several taxpayers over taxes due and payable to the commissioner of domestic taxes, thereby causing a revenue loss of Ksh97,242,691," the charge sheet reads in part.
He was further charged for knowingly acquiring and using the money which is the proceeds of crime.
After denying the charges, the prosecution told the court that the suspect is the mastermind of a tax fraud scheme syndicate in the city which has been hacking the authority tech equipment and software in a bid to loot money belonging to the taxpayers.
The state asked the court to consider the serious offences facing the accused person and the money he is alleged to have stolen while granting him bail.
On his side, Otura sought to be released on reasonable bail terms saying he is going to abide by all conditions set by the court.
Magistrate Nyamu however ordered the accused person to be released on a bond of Ksh 2 million or a cash bail of Ksh 800,000.
The case will be mentioned on October 3, 2022, for pretrial.
