An alleged gold Cartel was today arraigned in court after being accused of scamming foreign nationals by falsely pretending he would supply gold to the said foreigners.
Steve Okoth Odek was charged that on diverse dates between February 1, and August 2, 2024, at Nairobi City County jointly with others yet to be arrested conspired to commit a felony.
He is alleged to have stolen a sum of Ksh 265,200 USD equivalent to Ksh 38,188,800 from Asianic Ltd by falsely pretending that he was in a position to sell 580 Kgs of gold to the Asianic Limited.
Preliminary Investigations revealed that the foreigners entered into two separate gold purchase agreements with Steve in February 2024 where Steve was supposed to sell gold to the foreigners at USD 40,000 per Kilogram.
The accused person promised to deliver the gold only after securing certain conditions, including the buyer’s responsibility for jet chartering, payment of taxes and insurance.
Allegedly, Despite these terms, the accused once more failed to deliver the gold and in an attempt to keep the scam going, he provided 20kg of “gold bars” as collateral, which were stored at MySafe Vault.
At this point, the foreigners remained unaware that he was being scammed, and ended up paying a total of USD 256,000 through two law firms; Owano & Associates Advocates ($126,000) and Alata & Co. Advocates ($139,200).
Appearing before Magistrate Gilbert Shikwe, the accused denied the charges and was detained until Tuesday, December 10, 2024, for bail and bond release ruling.
