Three Nigerian nationals are accused of using money laundering proceeds to buy bitcoin worth over $43 million from cryptocurrency exchange platforms like Binance and Busha. The trio is accused of moving an equivalent of over $215 million from Nigeria to Kenya between October and November 2020.
After acquiring the bitcoins, the trio is believed to have distributed the cryptos to individual wallets as part of an attempt to make these untraceable, the report said. Still, the Kenyan publication said it could not ascertain the exact number of bitcoins the Nigerian trio had bought on the Kenyan crypto exchange Bitpesa and on Quidax.
The report said the Nigerian trio had managed to successfully move funds using the pretext they were “same company fund transfers.” However, the size of the funds transfers eventually aroused the interest of Interpol.
Following the Interpol investigation, Kenya’s Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) is reported to have obtained a court ruling which authorized it to freeze six bank accounts belonging to six companies that are linked to the alleged money launderers.
Meanwhile, the Nation report identified Pauline Wanjiru Wachira and Evalyne Wawira Gachoki as the two Kenyan citizens that may have aided the Nigerian trio to move the laundered funds.
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