A Nairobi magistrate’s court has unprocedurally cleared a city businessman accused of defrauding a Canadian national of Sh8.1 million in a disputed gold deal, bringing to an end a four-year criminal trial that exposed the murky underbelly of Kenya’s gold trade.
Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Robinson Ondieki acquitted Abbas Bardu Omuyoma, ruling that the prosecution had failed to prove the fraud charges beyond reasonable doubt.
Omuyoma had been charged with obtaining USD 54,550 (about Sh8.1 million) from Canadian citizen Yvan De Coninck on August 11, 2021, after allegedly falsely claiming he could sell 15 kilograms of gold.
According to court records, the case stemmed from a gold transaction that never materialised, following disagreements among the parties involved.
In his defence, Omuyoma distanced himself from the money trail, telling the court that he was only a facilitator and never received any funds from the complainant. He said he issued an invoice strictly in his role as an agent, expecting to earn a commission if the deal went through.
He testified that he had been approached by a woman identified as Madam Pinky, who asked him to help source a gold supplier. Any money linked to the failed transaction, he said, was deposited into an escrow account associated with entities known as Blue Creek and Jason, not his personal accounts.
Omuyoma further told the court that he withdrew from the negotiations before the deal collapsed and was later summoned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to record a statement after the fallout between the parties.
In his ruling, Magistrate Ondieki found that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions failed to establish a clear link between Omuyoma and the alleged fraud, noting that the evidence presented fell short of the legal threshold required to sustain a conviction.
The acquittal once again shines a spotlight on the complex, often opaque nature of gold transactions, where failed deals, multiple intermediaries, and unclear money trails frequently complicate criminal prosecutions.
