Meet Jitu Soni, the Indian extorting Kenyans through Travellers Forex Bureau, her briefcase company that has been red-flagged by Police in India. Jitu is wanted in India and she’s currently hiding in Nairobi’s upmarket Kitisuru.
Jitu Soni is allegedly linked to prostitution and secretly recording videos of prostitutes and their high profile clients. She allegedly selectively uses the pre-recorded videos in Kenya and India to run an extortion scheme from those caught in the act. The money extorted is paid through Travellers Forex Bureau branches in Nairobi.
It has been alleged that Travellers Forex Bureau was formed after the sister to most troubled Indian controversial couple had issues with Money Gram. Even though Kenyan Bulletin can not independently verify, in 2018, Money Gram might have censored the transactions being channeled in and out of the Travellers Forex Bureau.
Hello, your system has been problematic since the upgrade. Clients are getting errors that they don't understand and we the agents too don't understand. Kindly your IT team should do something on that, business is being lost here and discouragement is growing fast☹️ @MoneyGram
— TRAVELLERS FOREX BUREAU (@TRAVELLERS_KARE) September 25, 2018
Soni is sister of Jayshree Mawjee who is married to Bipin Mawjee. The couple hasn’t been in good terms since the allegations of cheating were served on their marriage table. The marriage between Jayshree and Bipin is on the rocks. And just like their marriage, Travellers Forex Bureau is allegedly used in money laundering in Kenya.
Bipin Mawjee’s, who is the Travellers Forex and Purple Haze Kilimani owner is using the court process to usurp his brother’s share of the property by separating his older brother Harish and his family from his widowed mother.
In a case filed at the Milimani Law courts and leaked to a controversial whistleblower blog, by its sources at the Milimani Law courts, Bipin, through Kamau Chege and Kagunyi advocates, seeks to serve Harish Ramnikal, Hasmita Harish and Bhavin Harish with orders restraining them from trespassing Bipin premises pending the hearing of the matter. The injunction orders are dated 21st of August of 2019.
Travellers Forex Bureau recently featured in a case in which Aba Mpesha of Mpesha Ltd – a briefcase firm, looted millions of shillings from the Central Bank of Kenya through the fraudulent sale of Treasury bonds. Mpesha Enterprises had no permanent address and nor relevant papers. Mpesha’s real name is Alex Ribero Ngugi.
On February 7, 2003, Sh95 million was transferred to the account by order of Dyer Blair Investment Bank, through Stanbic Bank. Immediately, Sh16.5 million in cash was withdrawn while Sh41 million in five separate banker’s cheques was transferred to Paramount Universal Bank. In what emerged to be a money-laundering plot, Travellers Forex Bureau was paid Sh924,000.
On February 24, 2003, another Sh90 million was paid by Dyer and Blair again. It is alleged that a similar scheme to launder money was spotted. CBK said from the payment, Sh1.5 million was channeled to Travellers Forex Bureau without tangible explanations.
According to Weekly Citizen sources, The same Travellers Foreex Bureau is also involved in unlicensed and unregulated online forex traders. To operate, one just needs to download their preferred forex trading app, open and create an account. Those accounts come with an e-wallet where a trader deposits funds using globally acceptable paying cards like MasterCard and Visa card. In Kenya, Online Forex Trading is regulated by the Capital Markets Authority under Capital Markets (Online Foreign Exchange Trading) Regulations, 2017.
According to Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority, it is estimated that about 50,000 people, including brokers, dealers and money managers, are in the business and are mainly using offshore platforms that are not overseen by Kenyan regulators to offer the service. It is alleged that Travellers Forex Bureau was used to hide millions during last year’s directive to withdraw old Sh1000 notes from the market.
Why is CBK mute about the Indian-owned Travellers Forex Bureau? Why is it that the allegations of multi-million deposit transactions in the firm were cleared without much-needed scrutiny? Why is the DCI not following some of these whistleblower tips? Who are these that have blanketed the Indian cartels accused of money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking, etc, etc in Kenya?
