Mr.
Robert Muli, a 60-year-old Kenyan a resident of Ohio, admitted to committing
the offense according to a report by Washington Post. Mr.Muli told the
Alexandria federal court that he conspired with people from Kenya to defraud
governments across the United States.
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The Philadelphia Criminal Justice Center
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A Kenyan
conman based in the US working in collusion with some people in Nairobi stole over Sh62 million by
pretending to work for computer manufacturer Dell, according to prosecutors in
the Alexandria federal court.
Mr.
Robert Muli, a 60-year-old Kenyan a resident of Ohio, admitted to committing
the offense according to a report by Washington Post. Mr.Muli told the
Alexandria federal court that he conspired with people from Kenya to defraud
governments across the United States.
The
US county governments affected included those of the cities of Philadelphia,
Detroit and the state of Vermont. Court papers do not identify the Virginia
jurisdiction but a Fairfax County spokesman said the county was the victim.
This is the second time in 2019 a US
based Kenyan has been involved in this type of cone game. Sometimes back the
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) asked activist Boniface Mwangi to
provide them with details of an incident in which a Kenyan living in the United
States was conned Ksh 10 million by a friend-turned-conman.
The victim only known as Nesphor, had been duped by
the man a Mr. John
Karundo Mukundi that
he had won a deal with Chinese construction firm, Avic, to supply materials to
a construction site in Westlands, Nairobi.
This was after Mwangi highlighted
the matter on social media, saying efforts by the man to get justice have been
frustrated by a senior police office.
Back
to Mr. Robert Muli’s case, prosecutors said a co-conspirator in Kenya would
email a contact in the local government pretending to be an employee from Dell
or another contractor and ask that payments be directed to a new bank account.
Muli would then withdraw that money and transfer it to various accounts.
The
Virginia case unfolded between August and September last year, according to
court papers.
The
government ultimately sent Sh131 million to Muli that was supposed to go to
Dell for a public school programme, according to prosecutors. It took several
emails back and forth between Dell and the government to make clear the money
was not going to its account.
The
government was able to cancel about half the wire transfers sent. “In September
2018, Fairfax County identified a financial fraud and immediately reported the
incident to law enforcement,” county spokesman Tony Castrilli said.
“The
fraud was committed by external parties. An internal review of the case was
completed and new internal safeguards and procedures are now in place to
prevent this type of crime from occurring in the future,” he said.
The
group also stole Sh13.2 million from the city of Detroit and Sh397, 471.21 from
the state of Vermont, according to court records. It attempted to steal Sh23.4
million from Philadelphia, but all of the money was recovered.
No
one else has been publicly charged in the scheme. At least some of the
co-conspirators are in Kenya, according to court records, where Muli was set to
fly the day after his arrest.
One
member of the group fled the country while under investigation by the FBI in
San Diego, according to court records.
Muli
pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He is set to be sentenced on
October 4 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
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