Detectives drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested eight suspects believed to have obtained close to Ksh500 million (USD$5 Million) through a popular mobile phone platform supported by mobile communication service provider Safaricom.
Isaack Kipkemoi, Gideon Rono, Maxwell Ributhu, Gideon Kirui, Moses Rono, Collins Kipyegon and Edwin Cheruiyot were arrested at an apartment in Kiamunyi, Nakuru, northwest of Nairobi. In contrast, the mastermind Peter Gitahi was arrested in Kitale, Trans-Nzoia County, western Kenya, following the meticulous operation by our officers.
Safaricom, through its Fuliza overdraft service, where customers can complete their MPESA transactions even when they do not have enough funds in their M-PESA account, lost the money in a well-coordinated scheme by eight young men.
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The young men who were found in possession of thousands of Safaricom and Airtel SIM cards were using fraudulently generated identity card numbers to register the SIM cards before borrowing money through the application.
Detectives began investigations into this well-choreographed fraud after a report was filled to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU) in August 2022, after the fund managers detected an unusual spike in Fuliza loan uptakes that were way above their performance scale and the borrowers were not repaying the loans.
According to sleuths from BFIU, over 123,000 new mobile phone numbers opted into fuliza and took up loans in January 2022. Thereafter, the SIM cards were either fraudulently vacated or switched off, and efforts to reach the customers turned futile.
After further investigations, detectives realized that the SIM cards had been registered fraudulently by one of the suspects, Peter Gitahi, suspected of having access to the National Registration Bureau database, where he develops falsified identity numbers used in the high profile fraud.
Preliminary investigations indicate that after developing the numbers and registering the lines, he would sell them to his accomplices based in Nakuru, who would then perpetuate the fraud.
Further, the detectives uncovered that some of the lines had been registered as Safaricom agents, where the borrowed funds would be deposited to personal bank accounts belonging to the individuals disguised as Mpesa float.
“The seemingly industrious suspects would initially borrow money and repay thereby improving their credit scores, until the SIM cards achieved their limits when they would borrow for the last time before disposing the SIM card,” said the DCI.
“One identity card would be used to register 5 lines in the daring SIM scam perpetuated by the young men, aged between 24-30 years.”
The suspects have, through their craft, acquired two brand new Subarus, one Toyota Mark X, a Toyota Probox and two motorbikes for their ease of movement.
During the operation, the detectives recovered 14 mobicom phones used in registering MPESA user SIM cards, 6laptops over 40 mobile phones, seven routers, assorted Safaricom lines, over 1000 Safaricom subscribers registration forms, over 200 ATM cards from all major banks, car agreements among other exhibits.
Detectives are currently interrogating the suspects for more insights into the high-level fraud before arraigning them in court.
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