Kenyan Woman Charged with Hacking into Zimbabwe Gov't Agency's Database, Stealing $20 Million

A Kenyan national was on Thursday charged with hacking the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) systems and syphoning $20 million from its bank account.

Primrose Nyeri Mwangi, who is the director of Primkett Travels, was charged with fraud at the Harare Magistrates Court, Zimbabwean publication NewsDay reports.

She was denied bail and was ordered to return to court on Friday for a bail application hearing.

The 40-year-old Kenyan is alleged to have connived with Gerald Pondai and Prosper Hove, who are still at large, and hacked into the Zimdef database in December last.

The three allegedly accessed Zimdef bank accounts and used the Zeepay ZimSwitch system to transfer $20 million into Maffkett Trading’s Steward Bank account.

They also transferred various amounts into Atrier Engineering CBZ Bank, Newplaces (Pvt) Limited NBS Bank and Tavaka Holdings accounts.

The prosecution alleges that Nyeri then used the money transferred into her company’s account to purchase bulk cooking oil.

The offense came to light on December 28th when Zimdef, the complainant in the case, received an email from a whistle-blower detailing the fraud.

In addition to the fraud charges, Njeri is also accused of violating the conditions of her tourist visa by working or conducting business in Zimbabwe.

Her visitor’s entry certificate gave her just one month as a tourist between December 14th and January 14th.