On Wednesday, December 28, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) exposed a suspect behind the infamous Mulot sim swap syndicate.
According to the DCI Crime Research and Intelligence Bureau, the suspect previously served time in prison and also has several cases and warrants of arrest hanging around his neck.
According to various campaign posters shared online after DCI elite unit disclosed his identity, the suspect reportedly vied for a Member of County Assembly (MCA) seat in the August polls.
The suspect, who initially sought the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party ticket; lost the party primaries- forcing him to decamp to United Democratic Party (UDP).
However, it is not clear what transpired after he failed to secure the MCA seat in Bomet County.
The suspect came under police radar after a legislator, drawn from the Rift Valley region, filed a report linking the Mulot syndicate to wiping clean his bank account, which had over Ksh941,000.
At the time, the MP was out of the country on official duties between Friday, December 2, and Saturday, December 3.
"In most instances, the fraudsters working in cahoots with rogue banking officials pose as customer care agents from banks then ask for a customer’s account number, PIN, as well as details of the last transaction on the targeted account," DCI's statement read in part.
"They then use the details to duplicate the victims’ account, and after a successful SIM swap, the account is swept clean in a matter of seconds,” DCI added.
Besides his political interests, in January 2022, the Mulot syndicate conned a senior police boss over Ksh597,000.
In 2006, he was accused of conning a former Sports official over Ksh400,000. Two years later, the suspect was also accused of defrauding a former Permanent Secretary of Ksh200,000.
In 2021, the politician allegedly promised to donate Ksh3 million to a local church in the Rift Valley region. To date, he has never delivered the promise.
DCI indicated that he worked with rogue bank officials to enable him to execute his online heists.
As a cautionary measure, DCI warned Kenyans against revealing their national identity card name and number, the last time they made a transaction on mobile money accounts and the amount made.
"Local financial institutions are the most targeted due to their inferior network segmentation systems, which expose their clients’ sensitive data to fraudsters in case of cyber threats," DCI warned.
"Kenyans are requested not to reveal their national identity Personal Identification Number of their sim cards to strangers who contact them," the detectives insisted.
