The Directorate of Criminal Investigations DCI has released a chilling account of the life and times of slain fraudster Samuel Mugoh Muvota.
Muvota came to the limelight when a lone gunman opened fire while he was in his car, in Mirema estate , Nairobi, killing Muvota on the spot in the daylight incident.
CCTV footage from the estate showed the chilling account that was broadcast on social and mainstream media , as questions emerged over why he would meet his death in such a way.
“Following the daylight killing of a man in Mirema on Monday afternoon, detectives based at DCI’s Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Unit have been combing DCI’s criminal database to interrogate who Samuel Mugoh Muvota truly was”, DCI said in a statement on its Twitter page.
While listing the numerous arrests that Muvota had in his criminal record, the DCI said his file stinks to the high heaven, and narrated how he was involved in theft of ATM cards from various victims in various banks, in an ATM and SIM swapping syndicate.
“The findings have revealed skeletons in the man’s dark life dating as far back as 2011, when Muvota started stealing from victims at ATM’s in various banks and graduated to a full time thug who hired beautiful, expensive-looking women and deployed them as drinks spiking agents at various high end entertainment spots, ” DCI revealed
Six bullets were pumped into the body of Muvota by an unknown assailant, Monday afternoon.
“He operated like a mafia criminal organization, and was a multi millionaire with several real estate properties scattered across the city, a fleet of vehicles and 7 wives all living lavishly from proceeds of stupefied patrons in clubs most frequented by revelers, : DCI said.
None of his wives reportedly suspected that Muvota led a double life, as he went on to recruit up to 50 women to the illicit scheme of drugging unsuspecting victims, who would later turn dead and others admitted in hospital in drug overdose
“The stupefying drug only identified as “tamuu” was supposed to be administered to patients suffering from mental disorders. After 11 years in the highly dangerous trade that has in recent days targeted patrons looking for entertainment in high-end establishments including top public servants, businessmen, politicians and men of the cloth, Muvota seemed to have made more enemies than friends. Detectives suspect that one of the women he had employed or an accomplice must have given him in to criminals after a deal gone sour,” DCI went on to reveal.
According to Economic Crimes detectives who have previously handled his cases, Muvota was arrested for over 30 times in the past 11 years on fraud related charges and had been in and out of almost all the courts in the city and in Kiambu county.
“On most occasions, he would approach the complainants with a refund for their money and the cases would collapse. He was widely known by cyber security specialists in the banking sector for the many times he fraudulently accessed clients’ accounts at city ATM’s sweeping the accounts clean.
Detectives believe that the thug worked with crooked banking officials who assisted him clean up accounts in a matter of minutes.
“He particularly had a preference for Co-operative bank ATMs. The slippery thug also had connections with rogue officers at several police stations and whenever detectives launched a manhunt for him, he would be tipped off in time. Muvota began his trade in 2011 by hanging around city ATM’s and offering to assist customers who had difficulties withdrawing money from their accounts. Working with crooked banking officials who would jam the teller machines once a client inserted his ATM card, Muvota would approach the client offering to assist. He would insert the clients’ card then pretend to be facing away and ask the client to key in his password and first confirm the balance before withdrawing the amount they wished”, the DCI explained, posting pictures and video clips of Muvota in different bank ATM booths with his unsuspecting victims.
However, since the machines eject the ATM card first, he would get hold of the card as the unsuspecting client waited for the cash. At this point, Muvota would swap the card with another and hand the happy client a fake card. Woe unto the account holder if the account had a fat balance since Muvota, would then visit different ATM booths withdrawing cash until the accounts were swept clean.
“In a well orchestrated scheme, Mugota would strike past 5 in the evening when he was sure that account holders would not walk back to their banks to inquire what the victims of the well-coordinated fraud visited their banks the following day to make inquiries into the fraudulent transactions, they would be met with apologies from equally hapless tellers. Muvota who was clearly ahead of the cyber security experts in the banking sector, took advantage of products introduced by banks to make transactions easy for their clients.”
“Such was the modus operandi of Samuel Muvota, who at the time of his death had graduated to being the mastermind of the pishori syndicate in the country, targeting moneyed patrons in the hope of a happy ending. But the men ended up drugged and some were found by their families naked wearing condoms, while inside their cars outside the gates to their homes”, the DCI said