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Woman arrested for defrauding foreigner Sh300m in fake gold scam

By Amina Wako April 16th, 2021 1 min read

Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Thursday arrested a wanted suspect who allegedly defrauded a foreigner of Sh300 million in a fake gold scam

According to detectives, Pauline Adhiambo Odok alias Rose Omamo, who has been on the run since May last year was arrested at Ololua, Dam Estate.

The detectives further mentioned that the suspect runs her operations by masquerading as a senior government official’s relative in order to earn the trust of her unsuspecting victims.

She is said to have convinced Southorn Chanthavong, director of Simong Group Company based in Lao, that she was in a position to sell him gold.

Together with other accomplices, who have since been charged in court, she is said to have lured Chanthavong to an office in Kaputei gardens, Kileleshwa, where they showed him gold bars in heavy metal boxes and immediately struck a deal.

According to the detectives, the suspects and the victim met several times between May 8 and May 25, 2019 during which he paid Sh300 million for the gold consignment that was supposed to be delivered to his home country.

It is only after the shipment failed to arrive as planned that the victim knew he had been conned.

The victim reported the matter to police and a warrant of arrest was issued for Adhiambo in January 2020.

“Luckily, a few days ago, a concerned member of the public who had seen our appeal for the arrest of Pauline, spotted her and alerted our detectives on her whereabouts,” DCI said in a statement.

She is currently in custody awaiting arraignment to answer to charges of conspiracy to defraud.