Nairobi Businessman Charged for Conning Trader of Sh2 Million in Bitcoin Fraud

A businessman was on Tuesday arraigned in a Nairobi court for allegedly duping a trader to invest in cryptocurrency.

Appearing before senior principal magistrate Derrick Kuto at Kibera law courts, Peter Kimani Njenga was charged with obtaining money by false pretenses.

He is accused of obtaining Sh2,040,000 from one Michael Musyoki Nzivo while pretending that he was in a position to help him invest in bitcoin, a fact he knew to be false.

The charge sheet read that he committed the said offense between May 4th and 5th this year in Nairobi. 

The accused allegedly promised Nzivo that he would earn 74 percent of the investment in profits.

The court heard that the complainant deposited the amount in Njenga’s bank accounts in two installments, but the recipient went underground after receiving the money until police traced and arrested him. 

Njenga pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on a Sh2 million bond and an alternative cash bail of Sh500,000. 

The case will be mentioned on June 15th.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator, that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries.