Five held in US over banking fraud

By Cyrus Ombati

Five Kenyans have been arrested over an international scam that allegedly cost the US Government agencies about Sh247 million ($3.3 million) in payments to bogus companies.

The five, according to American media, were scheduled to appear before a magistrate in Minneapolis on Tuesday.

The charges implicate Minnesota residents Michael M ‘Mikie’ Ochenge, 33, Robert M ‘Robe’ Otiso, 36, Paramena J ‘Joseph’ Shikanda, 35, Albert E Gunga, 30, and Collins A Masese, 20.

The felony counts allege Ochenge, Otiso and Shikanda helped devise a scheme that exploited increasing reliance on the Internet by the public and private sectors to conduct business.

Posing as businesses that provide services to state agencies, the conspirators tricked officials between March and July into giving them money owed to the legitimate vendors, the indictment says.

They managed to skim off $1.2 million from Massachusetts, $919,000 from West Virginia, $869,000 from Kansas and $301,000 from Ohio, the indictment says. The money was intended for either Deloitte Consulting or Accenture Corp.

 

 

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