Charles Kinuthia has been handed a two-year jail term in Rwanda after he was found guilty of conning the country's citizens.
Kinuthia had been accused of soliciting money from Rwandans to attend his “Wealth Conference” in the capital earlier in 2019.
NTV on Tuesday, September 17 reported that the suspect was able to squeeze almost Ksh 400,000 from participants.
On the day of the conference, over 5,000 citizens were reportedly left stranded after being lured with the promise of money after the event.
In his defence, Kinuthia argued that the attendants were to get a valuable bonus of resources and not cash.
The court noted that the suspect never showed remorse for the allegations made against him.
“Although Kinuthia pleaded not guilty, he accepted that he was the one who sent messages inviting people to attend the conference,” the court established, adding that “the messages were not saying [the] same which was a tactic to confuse the interested people in order to get money from them.”
The court acquitted his co-accused –Vivian Khisa Mukhwana and Rachel Matipei, and Rwandan Mohamed Niyonkuru – who were all arrested at one of his the conferences.
“The evidence provided by [the] prosecution against [the three] is insufficient in showing how they were involved. They were just workers who were lured by Kinuthia,” the court ruled.
