SHOCKING details of the heist conducted by a Kenyan family in the US

In November 2019, the National Police Service announced that they had received information about some Kenyans wanted in the United States.

The said Kenyans had allegedly committed fraudulent offenses. One of the men in the list of those wanted was Edwin Sila Nyumu.

Edwin Sila Nyumu was on the run. His family was allegedly the brains behind a US-based crime syndicate. The syndicate laundered millions of dollars in Kenya. The FBI  arrested Mr. Nyumu. However, he escaped from the United States and came back to Kenya.

Unfortunately for him, the FBI managed to trace him to Mlolongo, Machakos County.

The family of Edwin Sila Nyumu allegedly managed to steal a total of 2 billion dollars in tax fraud. According to the FBI, the heist was one of the biggest cyber-crime heists.

Cybercrime seems to have blossomed in the past few years. The Kenyan family managed to steal millions of shillings. Surprisingly, they managed to send the money to Kenya without raising alarm.

The FBI is still trying to figure out how they managed to do it.

A light aircraft with registration number 5Y CCN belonging to Jeffrey Sila Ndungi, one of the masterminds in the heist, parked at a city airport. PHOTO | POOL

Edwin Nyamu first appeared on the Interpol list 12 years ago. However, since he had a lot of cash to spare, he managed to bribe his way out of arrests. He bribed everyone who could reveal his identity. He also bribed police officers.

Unfortunately, his money ran out last year.

The Statute of Limitations has now favored him because of the amount of time that has passed since he committed federal crimes. The act stipulates that the government should not constantly harass and expect people to defend themselves from old charges.

In November last year, Corporal Gerald Kamwaro sought fresh orders from the court to arrest Edwin Nyumu.

He stated that Nairobi’s Interpol office had contacted the US National Central Bureau Interpol. They wanted the bureau to forward extradition documents against Mr. Nyumu.

Why police had not been able to trace Nyumu, and his millions of dollars, was never explained.

Mr. Kamwaro, while seeking the order said the “matter is of public interest since it touches on fraud against another government.”

Although he added that Nyumu was supposed to be extradited to the US to face charges of fraud, it was already too late. After 12 years on the run, he was no longer wanted by the US.

All his charges, together with Ernest Kangara, Kenneth Njagi, Bernard Nyemba, Ervin Somba, and his uncle Paul Kilungya Nyumu had been dropped.

Judge Greg Kays of District Court of Missouri reached the same verdict on September 22, 2017, according to papers obtained by the Nation.

He ruled: “Any unserved arrest warrants issued in connection with [the] said defendants are hereby recalled and the United States Marshals Service shall forthwith return to the Clerk of the District Court any such unserved arrest warrants.”

It is now suspected that the police knew the 12-year limitation had passed and wanted to scare him.

But Nyumu was not an ordinary fraudster. He came from a family that had terrorized US institutions with tax fraud and invested in real estate projects in Kenya.

By running a multinational cyber fraud syndicate, this family had entered the annals of Kenya’s history for stealing the largest amount of money without being involved in tendering or even firing a single shot.

Additionally, the family members not only launched Kenya’s journey into cybercrime but also played a big role in transforming the country into a global hotspot of technology-based criminals.

Nyumu’s syndicate had between 2004 and 2005 stolen over 350 identities and filed at least 500 false tax refunds.

“Some of the proceeds were then wired to, or withdrawn from ATMs in Nairobi, Kenya. The verified actual loss was over $2.3 million (Sh200 million) and the attempted loss was over $13.1 million (Sh1.3 billion),” say court records.

With so much money in his hands, Nyumu had to look for trusted people to help launder it to Kenya. Wavinya and Nzongi, his nieces who had arrived in the US using student visas, became the perfect candidates for the job.

He also recruited their brother Edwin Sila Nyumu and a woman known as Eva Mwangi, who was also from Kenya but had moved to Kansas.

Nyumu, who was 38 at that time, was deputized by Mwangi in the syndicate.

Nzongi, who was shy of her 23rd birthday, Ms. Wavinya (28) and Mr. Sila (23) were recruited as runners who would help in withdrawing the stolen money from ATMs or moving it to bank accounts in Nairobi.

Mr. Nyumu would transfer the stolen money to several accounts opened in the names of his two nieces or nephew.

Related