Five top crazy cons ever carried out by Ugandan nationals worldwide

By Staff Writer

1. The Benefit System Fraud

This was a 20-year organized family scam. One asks how a single family can pull off such a scam for twenty solid years in a foreign country undetected. Here’s how; They conspired together to create, use and exploit’ false identities in order to carry out the staggering fraud. They created fake identities for up to 100 children to milk the benefit system.

Then one of them also claimed to suffer from HIV and require costly drugs – but in reality sent the drugs back to Uganda to be sold for huge profits. Supplying the drugs for so many years cost the taxpayer more than £2million.

A further £154,000 went on education for the ‘family’, with £37,500 for a single higher education course. Fraud relating to accommodation costs and sub-letting of flats cost £650,000, and the family’s myriad benefits totaled £900,000.

They had so many identities that it may never be known exactly how much they took out of the benefits system and the UK over such a long period of time. The ‘key player’ Ruth Nabuguzi, 49, ‘employed multiple identities … so many that the true number of identities may never ever be known’.

2.  Vatican Scam

More than sh2 billion was fraudulently received from Vatican bank, after its system was hacked in. Ms Nabasa, who is in her early 20s and is said to have worked for three different banks before resigning owned the bank accounts where the money was deposited. The money, according to the Police, was wired in bits to an account in FINA, Crane Bank, Standard Chartered and Stanbic as well as two other bank accounts in KCB between January 17 and 18 2013.

That fraud involved many players. The money was part of two drafts that were prepared by the conmen – one for £264,000 (about sh1b) and the other for £242,000 (about sh968m). All the money was to be converted to Euros first and then wired. However, the conmen succeeded in processing one draft (for £264,000), but failed to process the second after it was intercepted. The £242,000 draft was questioned after the Vatican cross-checked and reported that no instructions had been given for the money to be issued.

The unanswered questions are; how did the con-men get such large sums of money over the bank counter? And secondly, Western Union has ceiling at which certain amount of funds can’t be withdrawn. So how come that the con-men were able to process such amount of money?

3.  Botched Gold deals

Meet Edward Ddumba Muwawu who was introduced to Jespersten a Danish national by Egesa, as a gold dealer. They all met in Muwawu’s home in Naalya and, later went to a shrine in Masaka, where the Mawawu showed the Jespersten a wooden box, which he said contained 70kg of gold. (Who freaking seals deals in a shrine?)

Anyway, later on, Jespersten agreed to buy 25kg of gold at sh520,000 per kg and Muwawu reportedly agreed to deliver it to Brussels. Muwawu was later given Shs 110m to transport the gold. At an unspecified time, Muwawu, who was reportedly headed for Brussels, called Jespersten, who left Denmark for the rendezvous.

Before they could meet, Muwawu reportedly called to inform them his flight had been diverted to London. He also reportedly asked for more money to pay taxes to clear the consignment, upon which the equivalent of sh32m was dispatched through Western Union. But there was more trouble on the way, when Muwawu allegedly called Jespersten again, to say he was now in Amsterdam, where he requested for 5,000 Euros (about sh20m) to clear his consignment.

Muwawu and Jespersten met in Amsterdam at a date the latter doesn’t recall and they headed to Brussels to meet the final ‘buyer’ of the gold. While in Brussels, Jespersten was allegedly introduced to another man by Muwawu, who asked for another 58,000 Euros (about Shs 232m) for courier services.

This man also allegedly defrauded the Jerpersten of an additional 40,000 Euros (about  sh160m) for opening up a bank account, hiring a lawyer and air ticket. After this, Muwawu allegedly disappeared after getting his cut of the money and switched off his phones. He was later arrested in Kampala.

4.  Bad Black chewed sh13bn in a few months

We all know who Bad Black is don’t we? If you don’t then let me introduce her. Shanita Namuyimba in her mid twenties is the girl who rocked the social scene of Kampala’s night life with her generous spending. Her con started out like a love story then quickly deteriorated into a nightmare for 53 year old David Greenhalgh the business mogul she conned of £2.4 million.

David Greenhalgh who runs an aviation consultancy firm and has business interests across Africa was introduced to Bad Black by a Portuguese businessman three years ago and the two planned to start a property business in Uganda together. However, he soon discovered that Namuyimba was not the savvy business woman he thought she was, but a party girl with expensive tastes. She wasted sh13bn in a few months.

5.  “Tania Bird” scandal

Most of you may not know who she is but Nakawunde Jascent aka “Tania Bird” in her mid twenties has already earned herself a spot amongst the ten most wanted criminals in the United Kingdom and number 5 amongst the top Ugandan scammers to-date. Her con is a classic Nkuba kyeyo dream.

She was working as live-in care taker for a very old Mzungu woman in her 80s. “Tania Bird” saw this as an opportunity to steal money worth £35,000 from the old woman by stealing her cheques which she paid into false accounts in the London area. As if that was not enough she also falsely obtained a debit card and account details in the name of a legitimate customer from a bank in Bethnal Green, East London, in October 2008.

She then went to three more banks in Saffron Walden, Cranbrook and Cambridge Hills and is accused of fraudulently transferring funds out of the customer’s account. The electronic transfers were then wired to locations across the world and used to buy a number of expensive vehicles, it is alleged. The total amount she is accused of stealing is £650,000.