How JKUAT Student Illegally Wired Sh41 Million from I&M Bank to His Account

The Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) has revealed how a Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) student transferred more than Sh40 million from a local bank to his account.

Documents filed in court by ARA show that Timothy Kang’arua registered more than 300 Sim cards using national identity cards belonging to unsuspecting Kenyans.

He is also accused of opening several bank accounts using their details.

ARA claims that Kang’arua then hacked into I&M Bank's systems before transferring Sh41 to the accounts. He later channeled the millions to his own account at Equity Bank.

ARA detective Jackson Nzau says Kang’arua defrauded the bank with the help of his accomplices.

“The players in this complex scheme, included persons in the employment of I&M, who uploaded funds from the Safaricom portal using the bank’s party login credentials to the primary list of beneficiaries mobile phone lines,” Nzau says.

ARA further says that investigators established that Kang’arua made the withdrawals in tranches below Sh1,000,000 to avoid the reporting threshold put by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

On November 17th, 2017 an account registered under Lemuel Wanjiru received Sh827,500, Simon Wahome received Sh757,600 while Collins Kaguchia received Sh897,150 before they were all transferred into an account belonging to 
Kang’arua.

The agency has asked the court to issue orders prohibiting Kanga’arua from transacting, withdrawing or transferring funds held in his account at Equity Bank for 90 days.

“It was a complex scheme where Kang’arua registered over 300 Safaricom lines using ID cards of unsuspecting Kenyans,” the agency says in court documents as quoted by The Star.

“There are no court orders currently preserving the funds and there is imminent danger the student will dispose of, transfer, withdraw and dissipate the said assets unless this court issues preservation orders as prayed in this application."