Two more Kenyans jailed in US scam
Two more members of a Kenyan fraud ring have been sentenced to prison in the United States for trying to steal more than $3 million from state governments.
Michael Ochenge, 33, received a four-year term, and Albert Gunga, 31, was given 10 months on Friday by a federal judge in the state of West Virginia.
The two men, who live in the state of Minnesota, will also likely be deported to Kenya once their terms are served, as will other Kenyans convicted in the scam.
Ochenge and Gunga had pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit money laundering.
They took part in a scheme plotted in Kenya to divert payments intended for US companies that had done work for the state governments of West Virginia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Florida and Ohio.
Photo of Angella Chegge-Kraszeski as published in the Charleston Gazette newspaper in US
A total of $772,000 was embezzled to accounts in Nairobi before the fraud was discovered. US authorities intervened before the Kenyans could wire another $2.6 million in stolen funds to the ringleaders in Kenya.
Three other members of the conspiracy were sentenced last week to a total of more than 11-and-a-half years in prison.
Yet another Kenyan, Angella Chegge-Kraszeski, is due to learn her punishment next Tuesday for her key role in the plot.
Chegge-Kraszeski, who pleaded guilty last year, helped organise the ring after the Kenya-based masterminds of the scam gave her a false passport during a visit to Kenya in 2008.
The 34-year-old Kenyan resident of the state of North Carolina testified on Thursday that she agreed to take part in the fraud out of fear that her handlers in Kenya might harm her son, who still lives in the country.
"I was led to believe that my son was in danger," Chegge-Kraszeski told the court, according to a report in Friday's edition of the Charleston (West Virginia) Gazette.
But Robert Otiso, sentenced last week to six years in prison for involvement in the scam, said in court this week that he knew of no danger to Chegge-Kraszeski's son.
Otiso suggested Chegge-Kraszeski might instead have been motivated by hopes of illicit financial gains, the Charleston Gazette reported.
“I think she was going to get something," he said. "She wasn't doing it for free.”
