Investigations
Police Arrest American Resident Believed To Be Behind ‘Amazon Web Worker’ Ponzi Scheme
A woman suspected of obtaining millions of shillings from Kenyans in a fraudulent scheme known as Amazon Web Worker was on Friday, May 28 arrested.
Stacey Marie Parker, 50, was arrested by DCI detectives at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), after jetting into the country from the United States (US).
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says that Parker’s arrest follows an intensive investigations by serious crimes detectives that linked her to the Ponzi scheme that has duped unsuspecting investors millions of shillings.
A suspect believed to have obtained millions of shillings from Kenyans in a fraudulent scheme known as Amazon Web Worker, was arrested yesterday after she jetted into the country, from the U.S. pic.twitter.com/XN2SXnm7l8
— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) May 29, 2021
In a well-coordinated and orchestrated scheme, investors were duped into investing their money in an online app known as Amazon Web Worker, on the premise that they would earn huge profits of up to 38% for a deposit lasting only seven days.
Social media platforms were awash with advertisements wooing Kenyans to the mouthwatering scheme, that promised to double one’s deposits in a month. In one such advertisement, investors who deposited KSh100,000 were promised KSh351,000 after 30 days!
All one needed for his/her application to be successful was to register their personal details such as full names, M-Pesa account details and mobile phone numbers in the online app.
“Unsuspecting Kenyans downloaded the app in their hundreds, registered and made their deposits. Some referred their spouses, children and close friends to the scheme, in a bid to make a fortune overnight. It is not until when the app was deleted from the internet without prior notice, that the investors discovered they had been duped.
“They were shocked to learn that the app was not in any way linked to Amazon, a multinational technology company based in the United States,” says the DCI.
App went down with millions of shillings of Kenyans
The app allegedly went down with deposits worth hundreds of millions of shillings from gullible investors, who had hoped to hit the jackpot, once their deposits earned profits.
Some of the duped investors reported the matter to DCI headquarters to seek assistance. Detectives swung into action immediately.
“Detectives managed to link Stacey to the syndicate after painstaking investigations revealed that she had pay-bill accounts in her name, that had a balance of KSh50 Million, believed to be deposits made by the unsuspecting victims,” adds the DCI.
The sleuths are currently pursuing other suspects in the fraud syndicate.
Parker is in police custody pending arraignment in court. She will be charged with money laundering, computer fraud among other charges.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
KETRACO CEO Advert Marred By Controversies As Fears Grow That Kipkemoi Kibias Is A Predetermined Candidate
I Will Bribe Every Judge in Town- MP Jack Wamboka
KNH ON THE BRINK: How Corruption, Revenue Plunder and State Neglect Are Destroying Kenya’s Flagship Hospital
Receivers In TransCentury Sh6B KRA Tax Arrears Are Biased And Must Be Removed, COFEK Claims
The Man Behind the Badge: How Prof. Erastus Kanga Turned Kenya’s Premier Wildlife Agency into a Theatre of Corruption, Fear and Impunity
City Lawyer Conrad Maloba Arrested Over Fake Ambulance Fraud
How Little Known KwikBet Leveraged Stolen Kenyans Data To Build Its Empire
THE FIXER IN THE FILE ROOM: How Parliamentary Health Committee Clerk Adan Gindicha Cleared Mediheal Hospital of Organ Harvesting Claims Despite Mounting Evidence
Nairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange
EXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Sold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
The Lawyer at the Centre of Kenya’s State Machine: Eric Gumbo, the AG’s Bypassed Office, and the Half-Billion-Shilling Question
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
The Debt They Would Not Pay: How Standard Group Ducked Sh50 Million In Regulatory Fee For Years, Then Called It A Witch-Hunt
-
Business2 weeks agoKenyan Motorists Stare At Possible Engine Damage And Heavy Losses As Report Confirms Substandard Fuel In Circulation
-
Business1 week agoTHE FUEL CABAL: How Mohamed Jaffer, a KPC Insider, and a Ministry Official Are Alleged to Have Manufactured Kenya’s Worst Petroleum Crisis in Three Years, While Kenyans Burned
-
Business2 weeks agoGetting Away With It: How Kenya’s Most Politically Connected Fuel Company Gulf Energy Is Pocketing Billions While Rival Firms Face Public Wrath
-
Business2 weeks agoHow Safaricom Could Sell You Out To KRA
-
News2 weeks agoThe Kewota Racket: How Kenya’s Female Teachers Are Being Bled Dry
-
Business1 week agoSugar Empire in the Dock: How Kibos’s Mombasa Refinery Landed 1,481 Phantom Tonnes at the Port — and Why Nine Government Agencies Are Now Watching Its Every Move
-
Investigations4 days agoEXCLUSIVE: Odibets Bought Stolen Data From Millions Of Kenyans
-
Business4 days agoNairobi Freezes Binance Accounts in Sweeping Anti-Fraud Crackdown as Global Scandal Record Haunts World’s Largest Crypto Exchange