The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) is after a college student with a whopping Sh102,654,024 in her bank account.
Felesta Nyamathira Njoroge, a student at Nairobi Technical Training Institute, had the funds suspected to be proceeds of crime and money laundering, deposited into the Co-operative Bank account between August 4 to August 6, 2021.
According to the 21-year-old, the money which was split into four transactions, was a gift from her Belgian boyfriend, De Mesel Marc.
On August 4, he deposited Sh25,803,756 into account number 02100705531800 held at Co-operative Bank.
The next day, the man deposited another Sh26,028,156 to the same account before making double deposits of Sh25,242,756 and Sh25,579,356 on August 6.
Sleuths have established that the account was opened a few days before the first bunch of millions was deposited.
Felesta had five other accounts at Co-operative Bank. They are 22100705531800, 03100705531800, 011008705531800, 01132705531800 and 01150705531800.
All the accounts had zero cash prior to the suspicious deposits
“Preliminary investigations have established the respondent opened the suspect account for the sole purpose of receiving the said funds which she declared the source to be from “my boyfriend” and the purpose as investing in land projects and safaris,” said the agency in an affidavit.
In an affidavit, De Marc stated that the student was free to use the money however she pleases.
“That I hereby admit that the donee will be full and absolute legal owner of the gifted money and even though I hope that she builds financial security for herself and our future children, she will be free to use the said gifted amount as per her own will,” he swore.
The agency says that they summoned Felesta on October 18 to explain the huge amounts of money but she was a no show.
The agency, instead received a letter from Ndindi and Nadida Advocates claiming the summon was vague.
The lawyers asked the detectives for “better and proper particulars of the alleged offence with regards to what information you wish to acquire from our client”.
Two days later, the lawyers wrote to ARA notifying them that their client was out of the country.
“We would like to inform you that our client, Felesta, is currently not in Kenya and in fact left the country on October 2, 2021….we do not have information on when our client will be coming back to Kenya,” the advocates told ARA.
While seeking orders to freeze the assets, the agency noted that Felesta could be part of a complex money laundering ring.
“There are reasonable grounds to suspect the funds held in account number 02100705531800 held at Co-operative Bank in the name of the respondent, are illicit funds in which the respondent is involved in a money laundering scheme, designed to conceal and disguise the nature, source location and movement of the funds,” they said.
