London court jails fraudster Ketan Somaia for 8 years

Politics and policy

Kenya-born businessman Ketan Somaia has been jailed by a UK court for conning a wealthy investor of Sh2 billion. Photo/CENTRAL NEWS 

By GEOFFREY IRUNGU, girungu@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• The Kenya-born businessman, who styled himself a banking billionaire to get soft loans from friends and associates, has been jailed for eight years by a London court that found him guilty of fraud.
• Mr Somaia, 52, defrauded a former friend and other investors of some £13.5 million (over Sh2 billion) that they had put into his struggling Dolphin Group 15 years ago.
• While most chose to cut their losses, one decided to pursue the private prosecution that felled the Kenyan.

There will be no more champagne breakfasts for Ketan Somaia who rose to wealth as a politically connected front-man in Kenya but is now a convict, locked in a jail in the United Kingdom.

 

The Kenya-born businessman, who styled himself a banking billionaire to get soft loans from friends and associates, has been jailed for eight years by a London court that found him guilty of fraud.

UPDATE: Read our most recent story, 'The many sins of fraudster Ketan Somaia', here.

Mr Somaia, 52, defrauded a former friend and other investors of some £13.5 million (over Sh2 billion) that they had put into his struggling Dolphin Group 15 years ago.

While most chose to cut their losses, one decided to pursue the private prosecution that felled the Kenyan.

This marks the second time that Mr Somaia is going to jail having also been incarcerated for two years in Kenya from 2005 after being convicted of stealing a million sterling pounds (about Sh150 million) from the National Bank of Kenya in a deal to import 'London-look' taxis.

The London court found him guilty of fleecing investors, convicting him of nine counts of obtaining money by deception, according to a story carried by the Daily Mail online.

The court heard how he wooed his victims with luxury trips and champagne parties at his palatial home and exclusive restaurants.

“I am satisfied the money you took as loans and investments were never invested as you said they would be, but were used by you either for your own purposes or to prop up your failing companies,” said Judge Richard Hone QC.

“You were fundamentally dishonest in your dealings.”

Mr Somaia was described as persuasive, using his charm to get at clients’ cash to prop up what the court heard were failing businesses.

READ: Ketan Somaia convicted for $19.5m fraud

Judge Hone was quoted as saying that he shortened Mr Somaia’s sentence on account of his health problems. Defence lawyer James Woods QC had argued that Mr Somaia’s heart and kidney problems have reduced his survival chances to only 20 per cent in the next five years.

“But for your admitted ill health, I would have had no hesitation in passing a sentence of ten years imprisonment,” said the Judge.

“I think some allowance should be made, though in my judgment you are your own worst enemy… having failed to take medication and failed to adhere to your doctor’s advice.”