Back in 1991, a young Kenyan walked into State House and convinced President Daniel Arap Moi and his then Finance Minister, George Saitoti, to grant him exclusive rights to export minerals.
According to a report by Daily Nation in 2012, he guaranteed that he would earn and remit to CBK at least Ksh5 billion a year, provided he was accorded the monopoly status and was paid an export compensation of 35 per cent.
His name was Kamlesh Pattni, a relatively unknown businessman at the time, who went on to orchestrate a scheme that brought the country's economy to its knees.
Born and raised in Mombasa, he later moved to practice business in Nairobi, where he allegedly used his company to acquire billions of shillings, in league with prominent politicians and government officials using the Goldenberg scandal.
In the scheme, Goldenberg International, a company owned by Pattni and former spy chief James Kanyotu, would export gold and diamond jewellery and receive compensation from the government for earning foreign exchange.
It turned out that Goldenberg International was not exporting any gold and diamond jewellery and that their claims were fictitious.
The scheme was executed in conjunction with Exchange Bank Ltd which was also owned by Mr Pattni and spymaster Kanyotu.
The scheme which ran for about three years brought the economy to its knees. It is estimated that the country lost up to Ksh100 billion.
So brazen was the scheme that in 1993, Goldenberg International received Ksh5.8 billion of taxpayers’ money in three tranches in three months.
So voluminous are the documents about Goldenberg that the inquiry to unravel it lasted two years – between 2003 and 2005 – and had to be carried in pickups at times.
Pattni changed from his Hindu religion to Christianity, opting for the name Paul. He is now a self-professed televangelist and pastor.
In 2012, he was awarded the Lifetime Africa Achievement Prize for Humanitarianism and Equity by the Ghanaian Excellence Awards Foundation.
In April 2013, the High Court acquitted him over the Goldenberg scandal.
