Kenyan in US faces Sh160m fraud case
Ms Angella Muthoni Chegge-Kraszeski, 33, of Raleigh will stand trial in the United States over her part in a conspiracy that is said to have defrauded an auditor’s office of about $2 million (Sh160 million). The Kenyan woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury in West Virginia.
Ms Muthoni Chegge-Kraszeski and other conspirators are also alleged to have channelled the funds from their illegal deals to banks in Nairobi, according to an eight-page indictment revealed for the first time last Wednesday.
The money sent to Kenya is said to have been 12 payments totalling $913,373.52 (about Sh73 million). This latest case of a Kenyan involved in crimes abroad comes in the wake of reports that six Kenyans are held in jail in China, facing execution for drug-related offences.
Federal prosecutors charged Ms Muthoni Chegge-Kraszeski with obtaining a false South African passport in the name of Christina Ann Clay, then using the false identity to create four dummy corporations in North Carolina.
Two of the bogus businesses had names similar to entities doing business with West Virginia’s government, including Deloite Consulting Corporation and Unisyss Corporation, according to the indictment. The actual business names are Deloitte Consulting LLP and Unisys Corporation. The names differ by the addition of one letter to the words Deloitte and Unisys.
Incorrect names
She also allegedly set up bank accounts under the similar but incorrect business names at TCF Bank in Minneapolis. Using those names, she then contacted West Virginia Auditor Glen Gainer’s office and had the funds diverted to the Minnesota accounts, the indictment alleges.
Gainer’s office discovered the missing money in the beginning of May. According to the indictment, the first payment of $919,916 intended for Deloitte Consulting for services provided to the state Department of Health and Human Resources was misdirected on March 19.
Over the next six weeks, Chegge-Kraszeski and her accomplices allegedly steered 12 payments totalling $913,373.52 to banks in Kenya, the indictment charges.
