Kenyan Jailed in US for Earning Kenya Foreign Exchange

Thursday, 24 June 2010 13:36

Written by Brandon Thiro

0 Comments

Somewhere in the bible there must be a chapter and verse that says something like whatever is done in darkness must come to light some day. I can vaguely recollect something like that from my ill-conceived adventure to read the bible cover to cover like a novel sometime back in my childhood. And it seems that the source of some of the foreign exchange that has been pumped into the Kenyan market may not be restricted to the pirates of Somalia shores as some were prone to propagate. Our very own Peter Mwangi could very well be the tip of the iceberg as he was jailed for six years by a Massachusetts court for a Sh46.8 million fraud.

Now this enterprising Nairobian in the period between March 2006 and June 2008, registered 11 non-existent businesses with the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance. To aid him in this hare-brained scheme he used the identities of both living and dead people.

He then moved on to the next phase of his plan and claimed unemplobyment benefits for 'employees' of these companies. He thereafter collected the benefits, cashed and banked them in his own account. His scheme to earn himself an American passport also ensured that he added a conviction on forgery on his already impressive hare-brained-super-villain Resume.

Somewhere in a town in Kenya that shall not be named, the proceeds from this American adventure must be in its own way driving the Kenyan economy.

| More...