A dramatic fraud case has unfolded at the Makadara Law Courts after a man accused of orchestrating a sophisticated extortion scheme involving fabricated fraud claims was formally charged while his accomplices remain on the run.
Abdinoor Sharmake Mohamed was arraigned in court on charges of conspiracy to defraud and giving false information to a person employed in public service. The case revolves around a fraudulent scheme involving USD 394,209, a plan investigators now say was carefully designed to frame an innocent businessman.
The investigation began in 2023 when Mohamed and three accomplices reported to Pangani Police Station claiming they had been defrauded of the large sum by a Nairobi based businessman. The group alleged that they had invested the money in the businessman’s company, African Express Cargo, as part of a joint cargo business venture.
According to the initial complaint, the suspects claimed they had handed over the money in cash in 2022. They further alleged that the businessman failed to start the business as agreed and later fled to a neighbouring country after receiving the funds.
To strengthen their claims, the group produced what appeared to be an Acknowledgement of Debt dated May 2, 2023, allegedly signed by the businessman in the presence of an advocate.
But when detectives from Starehe Sub County took over the investigation, the case began to unravel.
Police initially tracked down the alleged suspect and arrested him at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in March 2025. However, the arrest triggered a shocking twist that would completely change the direction of the investigation.
The businessman told investigators that he was not the fraudster but the victim of a criminal cartel.
He claimed that individuals posing as police officers had abducted him, illegally detained him, confiscated his passport and forced him under duress to sign the debt agreement used as evidence against him.
 
According to his statement, he was forced to pay USD 17,000 to secure his release and recover his passport. He further alleged that he later paid an additional USD 30,000 after being threatened with deportation.
The disturbing claims prompted detectives to reopen and re examine the entire case.
What followed was a painstaking investigation that dismantled the original allegations.
Detectives discovered that the supposed fraud report made at Pangani Police Station had been fabricated to give legitimacy to the extortion plot. Further investigations revealed that the alleged victim of the fraud was not even in Kenya on the dates when the suspects claimed the transactions took place.
Equally damning was the discovery that the three accomplices named in the case were also not in the country during the period the alleged fraud was said to have occurred.
Investigators also established that there was no record of any meeting between the parties at the Nairobi hotel where the exchange of money was said to have taken place.
With the evidence collapsing, the case file was forwarded to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The ODPP concluded that the suspects had deliberately provided false information to public officers with the intention of coercing and extorting money from the businessman while manipulating the criminal justice system.
Following the findings, Abdinoor Sharmake Mohamed was arrested and charged under Makadara Criminal Case No. E1091 of 2026.
However, three key suspects in the alleged scheme remain at large. They have been identified as Muna Dahir Dalmar, Salma Osman Gureye and Shamis Warsame Osman.
Police have now launched a manhunt for the trio as investigations continue into what authorities believe may be a wider fraud network exploiting false complaints, intimidation and fabricated evidence to extort money from their targets.
