The hearing of a case in which three suspects are charged for defrauding a British national USD 398,000 in a fake tender project to supply laptops and other accessories to the Ministry of ICT in March 2023 has been set for 29th, 30th and 31st of October, 2024.
Alex Stephen Ogolla alias Oparanya, Mofat Gicheru aka Aden and Eric Otieno Atanga are accused of obtaining the amount equivalent to Sh60 million through their supposed companies namely Violand Investment Ltd and Battre Africa Ltd after hoodwinking the complainant into believing that he was pre-qualified for the supply.
In the well-orchestrated scheme that involved several travels to UK by the fraudsters while armed with forged documents, the unsuspecting victim lost the amount as charges for prequalification, purchase, facilitation and handling.
Exhausting avenues of milking the victim further, the suspects cut off communication and holed up, until the Operation Support Unit detectives uncovered their fraudulence and hunted them down at Kasarani, Athi River and Kariobangi North.
Upon arraignment at the Milimani Law Courts, the three were released on Sh3 million bond with one surety of the same amount and without the option of a cash bail, with the pre-trial happening today at court no. 2 for confirmation of the documents to be relied on by the prosecution.
Two accompices who are still on the run; Stephen Nadade and Joy Wangari Kamau believed to have played key roles in the machinations before disappearing with part of the obtained amount are being pursued.
