Kenya Deports Zambia’s Bupe Chipando Over Gold Scamming Scheme

Bupe Chipando aka Elena, a notorious gold scammer of Zambian origin who has been operating an international gold scamming scheme of fraudsters in Nairobi has been deported.

Bupe was deported on Monday morning following his arrest by Transnational and Organized Crimes detectives, after he defrauded a Dutch National over Ksh170 million in a fake gold deal.

His arrest was ordered by Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang’i. According to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Bupe was also involved in the printing of counterfeit currency.

This was not the first arrest of fake-gold scammers who had defrauded foreigners.

In January, a Congolese man who had reportedly been on the run for four years, was charged with defrauding a Ukrainian and a Japanese national of more than Ksh680 million in a fake-gold deal.

The illicit trade is majorly concentrated in Nairobi’s high-end estates and in a well-coordinated and orchestrated scheme, the fraudsters acquire the posh premises which are guarded round the clock.

“It is in these upmarket establishments, where they have perfected the art of international organized gold scam fraud, by luring unsuspecting genuine investors from across the world to part with millions of money in exchange for fake gold,” DCI said.

In September 2017, the Mining Ministry gave people involved in fake gold trade an ultimatum, warning that the government would deal with them ruthlessly.

This is after it emerged that rogue mineral dealers were issuing certificates purportedly issued by the Ministry of Mining to show that their gold, which is mostly fake, had been tested and graded.

The Ministry of Mining said the fraud was being committed by persons with huge quantities of gold available at discounted prices, their victims being unsuspecting Kenyans and foreign nationals.

The criminals use false mineral dealers’ licenses, export permits and reports purporting to have been issued by the ministry.

Other common fraud cases involve demands for hefty upfront payments to facilitate the processing of export documents with relevant authorities, after which no export is done or the consignment turns out to be fake gold.

However, the government is yet to follow through and punish the real masterminds, some of them politicians.