An American millionaire investor has narrated how he was lured and conned a staggering Sh137 million in fake gold deal in Kenya.
Seth Bernstein claims those behind the scheme used the name of president William Ruto to con him.
They even presented a fake niece to the president claiming they would access State House at will.
Two suspects are facing fraud charges over the deal and the case is pending in court.
“The population of Kenya should know about this criminal ..I will tell all as he faked being married to presidents niece…had her come meet me,” he said of one of the suspects in court.
Two gold scammers who allegedly defrauded the American businessman of USD 1million (Sh137 million) were arraigned in March 15 charged in court.
Businessman Nicholas Otieno Ndolo and lawyer Thomas Otieno Ngoe were arraigned after they allegedly defrauded a US national Sh137 million in a fake gold deal.
They appeared before Milimani senior principal magistrate Zainab Abdul and denied three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, conspiracy to commit a felony, and forgery.
The prosecution said that they allegedly committed the offense on dates between February 3 and 11, 2023, through a bank at Yaya Centre Branch Kilimani within Nairobi City County.
They are accused that jointly with others, not before the court, conspired to commit a felony namely obtaining money by false pretense amounting to USD 1,000,000, the property of Seth Adam Bernstein.
The court heard that the complainant who is a foreigner, was introduced to Ndolo as a businessman dealing in gold business.
They agreed that he would purchase 3000kg of gold at USD 41,000 Per kg totaling to USD 123,000,000.
Ndolo provided an Equity Bank Account to the foreigner where money would be wired.
The foreigner instructed his bank in U.S.A. to wire the sum of USD 1,000,000 on February 10 2023 by way of a swift bank transfer into the said account.
Ndolo confirmed to have received the money and would then contact the complainant to witness the packaging of the gold in readiness for shipment to Dubai.
The complainant waited in vain for an appointment to witness the packaging which then prompted him to request for documentations in regard to the purchase of the said gold.
“The complainant later realized that some of the documents such as the customs entry indicated on the declaration form dated 8th March 2023 was not genuine,” claimed the DCI officer Alexander Makoma investigating the matter.
According to detectives, Ndolo started to avoid meeting the complainant and later started threatening him with deportation from Kenya, which prompted him to make a report at DCI Operations Support Unit.
Detectives claim upon investigations at Equity Bank where the money was wired, it was discovered that it is operated by Thomas Otieno Ngoe, who is the second suspect and that the whole amount had been transferred to other accounts.
Detectives claim a quick search was conducted and a firearm was recovered from the vehicle they were driving.
The suspects are out on bond.
This is his narration.
“Kenya people are struggling because people like these are making real investors not want to invest in Kenya and change their lives.
Nick is who stole the US$1 million from me to begin with and provided 17 fake documents of bank, gold minister of mines and all those.
Four months ago I came to Kenya to acquire gold.
I was brought to Nicholas Otieno Ndolo alias Nick.
He told me to wire US$1 million to his lawyers trust account to pay the taxes to properly export the gold.
I wired the US$1 million from Northern Trust Bank to Equity Bank in Kenya.
I am filing criminal and civil charges against the bank as well as they took US$1 million in cash out of these accounts with no contracts.
I was then shown fake documents from the minister of mines multiple times.
We had forensic evidence where they changed the meta data in the document from 3 kg of gold to 3,000 kg.
Mr. Nicholas otieno Ndolo introduced me to Mrs Helen Ruto who then introduced her as his wife.
I said I would be willing to invest 1 to 3 billion US dollars and would love to meet the president to discuss economic advancement to the country for the everyday citizens.
Creating manufacturing jobs, food production and grocery stores with affordable food would be good to Kenya.
Mr. Ndolo and Mrs Ruto said they would set up the meeting the next day with the president.
Mrs Ruto who self proclaimed she is the niece of the president now says Mr.
Ndolo is not her husband and he asked her to lie to impress me.
Mr. Ndolo then kept saying he has all the documents and the gold is on its way to Dubai.
My private jet waited for days before he threatened me to leave the country as he threatened me many times.
I then thankfully met Mr. Amin of the DCI who helped me much.
I have thousands of messages with all of these con artists and he did an amazing job bringing them to justice.
After meeting with them they admitted they had the money and would pay it back.
They said the million was not for taxes but for consulting fees.
We asked where is the consulting agreements they couldn’t provide.
Then as you have seen many people have written online how can a bank release US$1 million with no contract or authority.
How can these people take US$1 million and walk out of a courtroom on 5,000 US dollars bail? How can people misrepresent they are relatives of the president of Kenya? I will not rest until justice is served and the banks, courts and fake police they used to intimidate me are all brought to justice properly.
If I was a citizen of Kenya I would be devastated to know 50,000 jobs could have been created but a few criminals and dirty government officials are hurting not only the country but there own personal wallets.
Clean up Kenya and many investors will come to make Kenya the great nation it can be.
The money I get back from these criminals and the bank I will donate to Kenya charities.”
Bernstein runs a chain of businesses worth billions of US dollars headquartered in New York, and have offices in Mexico, Poland, India, Abu Dhabi, Colombia, London, and Monaco.
