A Kenyan woman residing in South Africa is in distress after she was conned on Facebook by a Kenyan man she met in 2015.
Mary Wangari Mwangi became friends with one Nathan Ochieng’ who identified himself as one of the youngest billionaires in the country.
Ms Wangari told the court that Ochieng posed as a wealthy businessman in the petroleum industry and coerced her to invest in the venture then later defrauded her Sh400,000.
“He gave me a newspaper cutting that highlighted success stories of billionaires. When I checked the internet, I realised he inserted his picture in an article that was not about him,” Mwangi was quoted by the Nation.
The victim revealed that she learnt that Ochieng’ was a fraudster when she tried to make a Sh2 Million deposit to his account in Kenya. During the transaction, South African Bank told her that the account she was sending money to was dormant.
Upon probing the matter further, Ms Mwangi discovered that Apex Petroleum, the company Ochieng’ mentioned, no longer existed after it defaulted on loan payments.
She added that the self-proclaimed billionaire did not invest the money she had sent and ended up cutting communication with her.
Ms Wangari decided to report the matter to the Kenyan authorities but noted that if Ochieng’ refunded the money she was ready to drop the case.
The accused reportedly told Wangari that he was a ‘Man of God’ and the money was an offering which could not be given back. He was later arrested at a church in Nairobi.
