Foreigner Stranded in Nairobi After Losing Sh945 Million in Fake Gold Deal

A Ukrainian businessman is currently stranded in Nairobi after he was allegedly defrauded out of nearly Sh1 billion by fake gold scammers.

Hennadii Kovalenko traveled to East Africa three years ago to buy 350 kilograms of gold using his savings and borrowed money, according to Daily Nation.

In pursuit of what promised to be a profitable gold business, he landed in Uganda to purchase 350kgs of gold from the Democratic Republic of Congo at a reduced price of $27,000 per kilo, which translate to $9,459,000 ( about Sh945 million).

Kovalenko had already found a purchaser for his gold with a Dubai processor and expected to earn a profit of at least $4 million after all expenses – including freight, commissions, warehousing and taxes.

Several months after he spent his money to buy gold, the foreigner is stuck in Kenya after realizing that he was a victim of fake gold fraudsters.

After the purchase, he believed his consignment was ferried to Kenya for shipment to Dubai but the package is nowhere to be found.

He reported the matter to the police early this year and shared details of the Kenyan logistics company that received his cargo for shipment to Dubai. However, only junior employees were arrested and charged with attempted fraud, while the company’s senior officials remain at large.

Authorities said they only recovered fake gold when they raided Afrisolutions Limited offices in Nairobi.

Speaking to Daily Nation, Kovalenko insisted that the consignment delivered from Uganda was genuine gold, saying that he personally tested it at the Department of Mining laboratory in Nairobi, where it was confirmed to be 99 percent pure. He has the certificates to prove it.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Nairobi took up his case and has twice this year written to Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeking intervention.

“The Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Kenya presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya and has the honor to kindly request the assistance in the objective and impartial consideration by the competent authorities of the case of CID/C/GEN/Comp/6.12/2019/54 of 16.01.2019, which has been opened according to the claim by Hennadii Kovalenko,” a letter dated March 21st, 2019 read.

The Embassy sent a follow up letter to the ministry in July this year.

In statements recorded with the police, Kovalenko indicated that his gold had in January 2018, on being ferried to Kenya from Uganda, entrusted to two individuals named Joseph Kimo and Zeddy Otieno, director and operations manager respectively, of Afrisolutions Ltd.

On April 5th, police arrested three Afrisolutions employees; Consolata Achieng Kwendete, Washington Libese and Enock Mungwana Okonda, described as a tea girl, a gardener and a caretaker.

The three were charged with intent to defraud, receiving in cash $1,059,000 from Kovalenko by falsely pretending that they were in a position to sell to him gold. The court was told that they committed the offenses together with others not before the court.

Kovalenko said Afrisolutions officials kept on demanding cash from him for clearance of his shipment, which they claimed was detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) by customs officers.