Mystery over Sh100 million recovered from foreigner
The mystery surrounding a foreigner who was found in possession of over Sh100 million at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) last Friday deepened after the State secured orders to seize the money.
The Assets Recovery Authority (ARA) obtained orders from Naivasha High Court to take custody of the cash, which was seized by customs officials.
Equally, the High Court ordered the foreigner not to leave the country until investigations are complete.
It has now emerged that Khalid Jameel Said Ahmaad, 55 who was travelling on a Bahrain passport had been in the county for about two weeks.
He was detained on January 28 at JKIA as he planned to fly out of the country. He had entered the country from Cairo, Egypt on January 13.
Detectives are now trying to piece together information on how he entered the country with huge sums of money undetected.
Although widely travelled across the world, this was his first travel to Kenya.
Opening accounts
Detectives were alerted of Khalid’s suspicious activities after he attempted to open bank accounts. He approached Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) and Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) but was turned down when he failed to provide sufficient documents to enable him to open an account.
“The two banks filed a suspicious activity by a foreigner who sought to bank US$ 1million (about Sh113 million),” an investigator told the People Daily.
Afterwards, the man flew to Mombasa where he attempted to deposit the money at a DTB Bank, Nyali branch account held by a Pakistan community charity organisation but was again turned down.
On January 27, Khalid went to JKIA Customs offices to inquire about travel requirements to Bahrain. He finally secured a flight to Bahrain via Cairo, scheduled to leave the country at 0730hours on Friday.
But as he made his way to JKIA’s Terminal 1A, detectives and customs officials who lay in wait pounced on him and seized his luggage where the money was confiscated.
This means he had already spent about US$23,000 (about Sh2.9 million) from the sum he had failed to deposit.
Officials at the airport said, based on intelligence shared by Financial Report Centre (FRC), the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Customs and Border Control staff at JKIA Passenger Terminals intercepted the passenger.
He had planned to take a flight to Bahrain through Egypt Air and was carrying USD 977,000 cash, which is about Sh110 million at an exchange rate of Sh113.
Detectives from the ARA have already begun the process of forfeiting the seized millions to the state as appropriate charges are prepared to arraign him in court. The officials obtained an order allowing them to hold the money for three months as their investigations go on.
Justice Esther Maina of Naivasha issued the orders to ARA on January 28 instead of DCI officers who had sought to take over the case.
FRC, ARA and KRA repulsed attempts by the DCI to take over the case saying so far no criminal offence had been established at that time as this may be the cause of non-declaration which is a customs offence or money laundering case.
