Kenyan detectives have arrested a man in connection with a gold scam that saw a tycoon based in Mumbai, India, lose close to $2 million.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said that Cavalho Lopes, a Guinean, obtained $1780000 from Malian Sanjay, Indian based-investor, on the pretext that he would sell him 44.45kgs of gold.
The gold was to be shipped from Guinea Bissau through Kigali before being loaded on a plane to India via Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
Once the complainant received confirmation from Lopes that the shipment was on transit to Nairobi, he received a call from a person purporting to be from Kenya Revenue Authority a few days after.
The caller, identified as Hezbon Nyabola, informed him that his consignment, Airway Bill No706-27720626, had been detained at JKIA for non-payment of customs duty.
As a result, Sanjay sent him a further $26,700 to clear the consignment and facilitate its shipment.
“Upto this moment, the investor had not realized that he had been scammed until the gold failed to arrive in India within the agreed upon time. He became suspicious and sought the assistance of our detectives, who immediately moved in and recovered the consignment at JKIA,” said DCI.
However, upon inspection, what was supposed to be gold worth over Sh190 million was discovered to be river bed pebbles, neatly arranged in a box!
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