A Chief Executive Officer of a company based in India was tricked by fraudsters based in Uganda and lost Ksh267 million worth of goods.
According to a statement shared by DCI on Saturday, October 7, the CEO identified as Surya Parkash, of Kutch Chemical Industries LTD, supplied a consignment of 104 containers of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) to fictitious companies between December 12, 2022, and April 22, 2023.
The complainant who flew to Kenya from India to file his report at DCI headquarters, stated that five companies identified as Abbey Chemicals East Africa LTD, Innospec LTD, Akoki Investment Agency LTD, CJP Chemicals LTD, and UNATRAL Free Zone SMC Uganda LTD, had ordered for the consignment which was delivered through the port of Mombasa, between January 31, 2023 and May 15, 2023.
But immediately the last container was offloaded at the port, the consignees who had not paid for the shipment went under, and severed communication with the supplier.
Investigations into the fraud bringing together seasoned sleuths from DCI’s Serious Crimes Unit, officers from Uganda Criminal Investigations Department, and INTERPOL were immediately launched.
“Yesterday, the team recovered 7,420 bags equivalent to 7 containers of the product at Liberty Internal Container Depot, a logistical company located along Bweyogere Industrial Area in Kampala. Uganda,” DCI’s statement read in part.
It added, “Efforts to recover the rest of the shipment and arrest the suspects involved are ongoing.”
