Gov’t Goes After Millions Held in Bank Accounts Owned by Kenyan Man Serving Jail Term in the US

The government has gone after millions of shillings held in bank accounts belonging to Jeffrey Sila Ndungi, a Kenyan man currently serving a 10-year jail term in the US.

In an application filed at the High Court, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) is seeking forfeiture of more than Sh17 million held in Ndungi’s accounts, claiming they are proceeds of crime.

ARA avers that his accounts had Sh57 million deposited over time but he had reserved the remaining Sh17 million as savings, but the money was traced to the illicit syndicate running in the US and Kenya.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Sh17 million traced in the respondent’s bank accounts are illicit funds and proceeds of crime obtained from the crimes committed by the respondent in the United States of America,” ARA says in court documents.

Ndungi, 34, was sentenced by a Texas court in 2018 after he was found guilty of two counts of stealing public funds and one count of aggravated identity theft.

He was accused of illegally obtaining a $76,592 US Treasury check payable to an individual identified as C.S. that had been issued on a federal income tax return filed electronically from Kenya.  

On August 9th, 2016, he delivered the treasury check to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Criminal Investigation (CI) undercover agent in exchange for $48,000. 

Sila was arrested on September 11th, 2016, at Los Angeles airport as he attempted to board a flight to Nairobi, Kenya.  

He was also convicted of the theft of another treasury refund check that had been issued on an electronically filed return in 2012.