A Makadara court allowed a request by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to deny bond to online influencer Pascaline Peter alias Passy Ma Trevor and George Mutual Mutunga alias Imran.
The duo is facing charges of obtaining money by false pretences.
In his ruling, Principal Magistrate Erick Mutunga said that the prosecution through provided enough evidence to deny the accused persons bond.
“The purpose of bail is to ensure the accused person’s attendance during trial, I have gone through the charges before this court and have put into consideration the applications of the investigating officer and that of the learned counsel in the matter, and I find that the accused persons if released on bond they may have no motivation of attending court,” ruled Mutunga.
The magistrate further stated that the court considered the security of the accused persons and indicated that granting the accused bond could interfere with the prosecution’s case.
However, the court directed the case to be heard on priority basis.
The accused persons were charged with obtaining Sh80 million from the public while falsely pretending the said money would earn a monthly return on interest of 23.5%,.
They are also battling charges of conspiracy to defraud contrary to section 317 of the penal code and carrying out business as a collective investment scheme without a valid license issued by the Capital Markets Authority or Central Bank of Kenya.
They allegedly committed the offences on diverse dates between March 3, 2023 and 30th August of the following year.
The case will be heard on January 15, 2025.
The accused persons obtained the money on diverse dates between March 3, 2023 and August 30, 2024 at unknown place within the Republic of Kenya.
They were also charged with carrying out business as a collective investment scheme without a valid license issued by the Capital Markets Authority or Central Bank of Kenya and conspiracy to defraud contrary to section 317 of the Penal Code.
Court heard that on diverse dates between March 3, 2023 and August 30 of the following year, the accused persons represented as genuine sole proprietors of Passy Ma Trevor investment scheme carried out a business as a collective investment scheme without a valid license.
They pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecution opposed their release on bond pending the hearing and determination of the case.
In an affidavit to oppose bond, investigating officer Justin Mutwiri said the accused persons went into hiding when the complainants demanded for their return on investment and later switched off their mobile phones whereby it took intensive use of intelligence tactics from different agencies to smoke them from their hide outs deep inside Machakos County.
The investigating officer further told court the suspects are likely to interfere with major witnesses, don’t have a fixed abode, and are a flight risk.
The victims lawyer also asked court not to release the suspects on bond.
Court will on November 13, 2024, rule on whether to release accused persons on bond.
Passy Ma Trevor is alleged to have gone into hiding after carting away approximately Sh350 million from her victims leaving them counting huge losses.
In a well orchestrated scheme that involved convincing victims to deposit large sums of money into four different bank accounts across Equity Bank, Coop Bank, Stanbic Bank and Kingdom Bank, with a promise of up to 30% monthly interest, Passy Ma Trevor also falsely claimed she was running a successful real estate company that she used as a bait but once payments were made, she switched off her mobile phone and went into hiding.
Learning that Passy had tricked them into joining a ponzi scheme that had cost them an arm and a leg, the affected individuals teamed up and filed their complaint with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations who launched investigations leading to her being smoked out from her hideout in Kantafu, Machakos County.
Preliminary investigatios have revealed that the 36 year old lady who displayed opulence across her social media outlets managed to defraud over 200 individuals, with 106 formal complaints already filed against her.
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