The court has authorized the government to confiscate the KSh 102 million love gift Felista Nyamathira Njoroge received from her Belgian billionaire boyfriend.
High Court Judge Esther Maina ruled on Thursday, May 25, 2023, that the Kenyan government was allowed to keep the money held in Nyamathira’s two Cooperative Bank accounts.
This is after the court determined that the gift was the result of money laundering.
The court reasoned that Nyamathira’s supposed lover, Belgian YouTube crypto celebrity and billionaire Marc De Mesel, failed to give sufficient disclosure and explanation regarding the source of the said funds.
Justice Maina ruled that DeMesel had not adequately disclosed the source of the wealth he lavishes on young women all around the world.
According to Justice Maina, without the explanation, the state would gain from the cash that the foreign crypto-personality secretly wired into the country.
Felista Nyamathira Njoroge and her Belgian boyfriend Marc De Mesel. Photo/courtesy
Justice Maina stated that the evidence presented in court by both the state and the two lovers revealed that there was evident money laundering.
Judge Maina ruled:
“I have analysed and gone through the evidence tendered by the boyfriend, and it did not show the source of the funds that were transferred to the Kenyan girlfriend.”
She added that, in the absence of disclosure of the source of the funds, money laundering was the most likely conclusion.
Nyamathira made news in 2021 when she disclosed that DCI officers had seized gifts of money intended for her by a Belgian boyfriend.
Felista Nyamathira Njoroge claimed that the State Criminal Investigation Department had mistreated her by denying her access to the KSh102 million that had been sent to her for personal use.
Four transactions
According to the evidence given in court, the money was sent into a Co-operative Bank account in four separate transactions between August 4 and August 6, 2021.
An investigation by authorities revealed that the Belgian transmitted $229,980 on August 4 and $231,980 on August 5.
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Mesel made two transfers of the funds on August 6, totaling $224,980 and $227,980. Felister Nyamathira Njoroge is the name listed on the account.
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