OneCoin promoters who roped a “seasoned lawyer” into the Ponzi scheme in 2018, are now suspects in a criminal investigation.

As reported by Tuko; Jane Nyaboke Njagi was recruited into OneCoin by Kenyan locals Steve Mwendwa and Emmanuel Gatobu.

To get the lawyer to invest in the Ponzi scheme, Mwenda told Njagi he had turned 900,000 kSh ($8114 USD) into 47 million kSh ($423,780 USD) “in a short period”

Seeing as the Ponzi side of OneCoin collapsed in 2017, that figure would be based on recruitment and seems hugely inflated.

In any event, Njagi took the bait and attended OneCoin’s then Kenyan office in Nairobi.

There Emmanuel Gatobu introduced himself to Njagi as CEO of OneCoin. We’re assuming Gatobu meant CEO of OneCoin in Kenya.

Gatobu told Njagi ‘that if she invested 777,000 kSh, she could make a profit of about 1.6 million kSh by October 8, 2018’.

Njagi swallowed the pitch hook, line and sinker. She deposited 867,000 kSh in a KCB Bank account held in the name Stephlinks Holdings.

We’re assuming that’s one of the dozens of shell companies OneCoin has solicited investment through over the years.

After investing in OneCoin, a week later Steve Mwendwa contacted Njagi to let her know

he had borrowed 2.2 million kSh ($19,836 USD) from his wife and invested it in the business on behalf of (her).

Mwendwa then demanded Njagi reimburse him for the amount he’d invested on her behalf, without her knowledge.

Mwendwa threatened to expose the lawyer as a fraudster through social media for allegedly failing to refund the money.

It gets better…

Njagi didn’t pay Mwendwa and so he went off and filed a complaint with local police.

This led to an arrest warrant issued against Njagi, who was later released on the charge of “obtaining goods by false pretense”.

Apparently that case has been going on since it was brought forward in September 2018 – although not as Mwendwa would have hoped.

Rather than a quick $20,000 payday, a recent ruling in the three-year case has turned the tables.

Justice Makau faulted the police for bringing criminal proceedings against her without hearing her side of the story on the ruling.

“The criminal proceedings seem to be made to secure ulterior intentions as it appears the police, DCI and DPP are well bent to use the state machinery to intimidate and harass Njagi, which is a clear indication of violation of her rights and misuse of State resources”.

The Judge went on to rule that even if Njagi had borrowed the money, the dispute was civil in nature.

In his defense, Mwendwa told the court he’d transferred the onecoin to Njagi’s account because she “showed interest”.

Reading between the lines, as previously stated OneCoin affiliates have been unable to cash out since early 2017.

After getting her to invest and pocketing the referral commission, Mwendwa figured he could offload some of his worthless onecoin onto a new victim.

So he did, except that didn’t go to plan after Njagi “failed to refund the money and eventually started dodging his calls”.

Mwendwa likely has connections with the local police department, leading to police harassing Njagi.

What the Kenyan police should have been investigating is the local OneCoin promotion racket run by Mwendwa and Gatobu.

Justice James Makau has now ordered a probe into the events surrounding Njagi’s recruitment into OneCoin and subsequent loss.

Not surprisingly, the 867,000 kSh Njagi did invest into OneCoin didn’t turn into 1.6 million kSh as Gatobu promised.

Given the apparent links between Mwendwa, the police who investigated and possibly OneCoin itself, I wouldn’t be confident anything comes of an investigation into the police by the police.

Stay tuned for any updates but this is probably a wrap.