Museveni’s assistant loses Shs450 million in bogus gold deal
KAMPALA- Detectives have arrested the former National Resistance Movement Kampala City mayoral aspirant on allegations of conning a Senior Presidential Assistant in Charge of Diaspora Issues of over Shs450 million in a fake gold deal.
Muhammad Kasule, the proprietor of Blue Diamond Corporation, allegedly conned Ms Florence Kiremerwa and her US business partner, Mr Richard Richards, of the said money after promising to deliver to them two kilogrammes of gold.
Mr Vicent Ssekatte, the spokesman of police’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations, confirmed the arrest of Kasule.
“A complaint was made to us and we have arrested Kasule on charges of obtaining money by false pretence and uttering false documents and forgery,” Mr Ssekatte said on Tuesday.
It is alleged that Kasule promised Ms Kiremerwa and Mr Richards to sell them gold at US$50,000 (Shs150m) mid last year.
Mr Richards, reportedly wired US$48,000 (Shs175 million) to Ms Kiremerwa’s bank account. She also reportedly transferred the money to Kasule’s account in KCB main branch in Kampala City.
Mr Ssekatte said Kasule didn’t deliver the gold.
“He told Richards to travel back to US and convinced him that he would send the consignment. When Richards went back to the US, Kasule started dealing with him directly,” he said.
The suspect allegedly told Mr Richards that he had 50 kgms of gold in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and then demanded $107,759 (Shs 394 million).
The suspect is said to have sent him documents to prove that the gold was available.
Mr Richards reportedly wired the money to the suspect’s bank account. After getting the money, Kasule allegedly stopped communicating to Mr Richards.
Ms Kiremerwa detected the scam and reported to police.
According to police, the mobile phone numbers that the suspect had given to his victims were found out to belong to other people.
They tracked one line which led them to a one Edson Kasyata, who denied any dealings with the suspect.
Kasule’s company was also found to be unregistered.
Mr Ssekatte said on verification, the documents he gave to the victims were also found out to be forged.
“For more than nine months he has been in hiding. Detectives have been looking for him until they got a tip off and arrested him on Monday,” he said.
Recently, the police warned foreigners who travel to Uganda to buy gold of conmen after an increase in scams reported to the police.
The police said most of victims are from Middle East, Europe and the US.
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