A senator, a member of parliament and a businessman have found themselves locked in a multi-million shillings international gold scam that now threatens relations between Kenya and Dubai.
The syndicate has forced President Uhuru to order a crackdown on gold scammers in the country after the ruler of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum complained to him that his gold had been seized at JKIA.
The fake gold syndicate which is estimated to run to close to over Sh400 million, began mid last year when the political operatives got in touch with the Dubai-based dealer Mr Ali Zandi, who represents Zlivia Company, a gold trading company based in Dubai and cut a deal for a gold consignment that was supposedly in DRC.
The group reportedly used known gold dealers, including a Russian national and a Bulgarian to state there was a huge amount of gold in DRC ready for movement to Dubai.
Early today,@DCI_Kenya Detectives from the Serious Crime Unit raided a house at Kaputei Gardens & confiscated various items including vehicles & suspected fake #gold, used to defraud unsuspecting members of the public. Fifteen suspects arrested.Further investigations are ongoing. pic.twitter.com/TjSer2RDBB
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) May 13, 2019
They said they would deliver 4.6 tonnes of gold from Ndande Tribe in DR Congo. The gold haul was to be moved by road via Uganda. For them to deliver the consignment, they needed financial facilitation. When the money was paid, the Kenyans said the gold had been detained by customs officials at JKIA.
Mr Zandi was notified and told to facilitate the release of the gold but declined the demands for cash to facilitate the release and instead flew to Kenya on December 24, last year and tried to follow up on the detained gold.
They checked into Serena Hotel where he stayed for days as they pushed for the release of the royal family’s gold.
His efforts to meet senior Kenyan government officials were unsuccessful. Instead, the Kenyan contacts, including the senator, took the Saudi representatives to JKIA where they were shown sealed boxes purportedly containing the gold.
The “seizure” was supposedly the first tranche of a 23-tonne gold consignment that was to be brought from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Zandi is said to have met the Government official in his car and who assured that the gold would be released. He flew back to Dubai after a month but the said gold never got to Dubai.
According to the police, this prompted Massoud Zandi, a representative of the gold trading company, to call the senator for help.
On December 15, 2018, the senator flew to Dubai on the invitation of Zandi for a meeting during which he assured them he would help secure the release of the gold.
The scam now has Kenya and the United Arab Emirates at cross purposes with claims of Dubai having blacklisted a cabinet secretary for being linked to the ring.
On Tuesday, 15 suspects arrested on Monday in connection to the supposed gold were detained for a week to allow police to conclude their probe.
The syndicate has now prompted detectives in Nairobi to probe foreign businessmen trading in gold by before being allowed to continue with their activities, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations has said.
In its statement posted on its twitter handle, the DCI said that the country has experienced rampant cases where con artists defraud unsuspecting individuals by selling them fake gold.