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No investigation into money laundering at Kenyan bank – viral letter fake

A letter making the rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp claims that Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations, or DCI, has started investigating money laundering at the Kenya Commercial Bank.

The letter, titled “Allegations of money laundering at KCB”, claims that the directorate’s attention has been drawn to reports on several media platforms about the laundering, and has opened investigations.

“We take the allegations seriously and have subsequently opened investigations on the same. The Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU) has been given 21 days to investigate the matter,” it reads.

We took a closer look.



Letter referring to fake story


The supposed money laundering scandal has its origins in a story published on an imposter Facebook page.

Africa Check recently checked the credibility of the page “Citizen Weekly” and found it was impersonating Weekly Citizen, a well-known Kenyan weekly newspaper. 

The documents given as evidence of money laundering at KCB are also fake.

Fake letter


The DCI posts its press releases on its official Twitter account, always giving the date. The circulating letter was not posted on the account and has no date.

The Standard newspaper quoted the DCI saying the letter was fake. Africa Check has contacted the directorate to confirm this, and will update this report should they respond. – Dancan Bwire




 

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