Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have arrested a Kenyan woman based in the US Stacey Marie Parker Blake over her links with the Amazon Web Worker scheme.
In a statement Saturday night, DCI said that Stacey was arrested on Friday night soon after landing at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) from the US.
The 50-year-old suspect according to DCI was placed at the heart of the Ponzi scheme by DCI Serious Crimes Unit.
“Detectives managed to link Stacey to the syndicate after painstaking investigations revealed that she had pay-bill accounts in her name that had a balance of Sh50 Million, believed to be deposits made by the unsuspecting victims,” DCI said.
The Amazon Web Worker sunk with millions of shillings from gullible Kenyans seeking to invest in the Ponzi scheme albeit unknowingly that it was a scam.
In a well-coordinated and orchestrated scheme, investors were duped into investing their money in an online app known as Amazon Web Worker, on the premise that they would earn huge profits of upto 38% for a deposit lasting only 7 days.
Social media platforms were awash with advertisements wooing Kenyans to invest with the scheme that promised to double one’s deposits in a month.
In one of the advertisement, investors who deposited Sh100,000 were promised Sh351,000 after 30 days.
All one needed for his/her application to be successful was to register their personal details such as full names, M-Pesa account details & mobile phone numbers in the online app Unsuspecting Kenyans downloaded the app in their hundreds, registered and made their deposits.
A red flag was raised when the app was deleted from the internet and those who had invested in the scheme realized they had been conned.
They were shocked to learn that the app was not in any way linked to Amazon, a multinational technology company based in the United States.
Investigations have revealed that Amazon Web Worker is not affiliated with the authentic giant platform Amazon in the US.
Police are now pursuing other members of Stacey’s syndicate.
