Joseph Momanyi (Pic: Nation Newspaper Group)

Kenyan police have nabbed a 26-year-old man accused of masterminding a complex $378,000 (KSh 49 million) cyber crime on the fintech JamboPay platform.

The Nation Newspaper Group reported that Joseph Momanyi will remain behind bars for a further seven days after he made his first court appearance yesterday.

According to the publication, Momanyi was arrested on April 12 at his residence in Kahawa West, where detectives recovered numerous SIM cards registered under different names, multiple mobile phones, and a laptop allegedly used in the fraud.

“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) claims Momanyi hacked into the financial system of Web Tribe Limited — the parent company of JamboPay — between July 19 and 24, 2024. Using customer profiles linked to platforms like KoraPay and Fincra. He reportedly tampered with account details and disabled phone numbers that receive one-time transaction alerts,” said the Nation.

This allowed him to silently siphon $378,568 (KSh 49,095,968) into various M-Pesa wallets, tills, and bank accounts without raising alarms. 

Detectives say Momanyi operated a digital network of accomplices, using WhatsApp calls and fake identities to remain undetected.

“After gaining access to the JamboPay client portal through legitimate customer profiles of Korapay, Finera and JamboPay transaction merchant accounts, the system hacker changed and disabled the client’s mobile numbers that received notification one time pin and thereby affected the transactions,” said the DCI.

The fraud was uncovered after Web Tribe reported suspicious activity on its systems.

Web Tribe is a Kenyan IT business that specialises in online payments, web applications, and network security.

Officers at the Financial Investigations Unit told The Nation that Momanyi confessed that he did not act alone and had recruited individuals to provide mule accounts for the transactions.