Another university ‘girlfriend’ gets Sh. 108 million from suspicious billionaire

Felesta Nyamathira made the headlines when she received Sh. 102 million from her Belgian boyfriend Marc de Mesel. Nyamathira received the money in her bank account barely two days after opening and activating the account. The huge amount that was deposited in three tranches raised alarm, forcing the Assets and Recovery Agency to ask the court to freeze the account on suspicion that the funds were proceeds of money laundering.

It has now emerged that Nyamathira was not the only university student who got a huge deposit from Marc de Mesel. In the same week she got the money, 21-year-old Nairobi Technical Institute student Tebby Wambui Kago received Sh. 108.2 million from the Belgian billionaire. She first received $631,071 (Sh. 71.2 million) at Equity Bank and later Sh. 37 million in the same bank

It has also emerged that Nyamathira also got an additional Sh. 5 million from her Stanbic Bank account. This has brought the total amount Marc de Mesel sent to the two girls to Sh. 215.2 million, nearly quarter a billion shillings.

Meet man who ‘gifted’ 21-year-old Nairobi girlfriend Sh. 102 million

In petitioning the court to freeze the two women’s accounts, the Assets Recovery Agency said that investigations established that the suspect funds were received from the same source, De Mesel, and distributed in the same manner, to various accounts belonging to the two women.

“The pattern of transaction in the accounts in issue and the activities of one De Mesel Marc and the Respondents depicts money laundering activities and this Honourable Court ought to issue the orders sought,” the ARA said.

It added that Masel wired a total of $909,900 between August 6 and 10 to Kago’s dollar account. In September, Kago distributed a total of $278,799 to several accounts, including hers and another one registered in the name of Sarah Njoki. “A preliminary analysis of the bank statement for account number *** held at Equity Bank Limited in the name of the 1st Respondent has established that the account received a cumulative sum of KES 37,000,000 in one single suspicious transaction in the month of November 2021,” the ARA told the court.

On September 22, Nyamathira received Sh. 5 million through inward swift payment. “There are reasonable grounds to suspect that the funds held in the above accounts are proceeds of crime acquired through illicit and money laundering scheme designed to conceal, disguise the nature, source location and movement of the funds,” the ARA said. The court agreed with the petition and froze all the accounts for three months.