The Assets and Recovery Agency went after a 21-year-old university student who had 102 million in her bank account.
The Nairobi Technical Training Institute student, Felesta Njoroge received a suspicious amount of money in a span of three days after opening the Cooperative bank account. In court papers in which the agency sought orders to freeze Njoroge’s Co-operative Bank account, the court heard that the deposits were made between October 4 and October 6.
Felesta said that the money was sent to her by her Belgian boyfriend to invest in land projects and safaris.
Wash wash?
The agency moved to court seeking orders to freeze Felesta’s account. Stating that the funds are proceeds of money laundering or wash wash if you like.
There are reasonable grounds to suspect the funds held in the account 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.
ARA summoned Felesta on October 18th to explain the suspicious transactions but she did not show up.
She instead sent her lawyers who termed the summons as vague, and that better and proper particulars of the alleged offense should be provided. Two days later, the attorneys informed the agency 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 2nd, 2021. We do not have information on when our client will be coming back to Kenya.”
Boyfriend’s reaction
The boyfriend, Mesel complained that he and his pregnant girlfriend were arrested over the money.
“I knew there were more unlawful activities in Africa than Europe but without any notice, summon or question by police, suddenly being apprehended in my home, seizing my laptop, phone and passport, taken away handcuffed, as well as my pregnant girlfriend, I did not expect. Turns out we were believed to be part of a money-laundering scheme due to a bank gift I had made to my girlfriend, and for which we had submitted the requested paperwork to the bank. We are not feeling safe anymore in Kenya. Said Mesel who is a Bitcoin investor.
