Overseas jobs scam: The tricks exposed firm uses to defraud more job seekers
Online, the company states it is out to bridge the gap for all employment needs abroad.
What you need to know:
- The company’s registered physical address is Kimathi House along Kimathi Street in Nairobi County.
- However, the company operates from a ninth-floor office on Fourth Avenue Towers in Nairobi.
A company that was exposed in a fake overseas jobs scam has been changing its name and physical address to lure unsuspecting job seekers into their fraudulent scheme.
The Nation has established that the company, Amble Beginning Consult Limited, has retained its directors and staff but keeps changing its physical address.
Documents in our possession show that the company was registered on January 27, 2023 and has three directors, namely Brian Kyalo Kioko, Catherine Nduku Kioko and Alphonce Kioko Kivindu.
According to records at the Registrar of Companies, the company’s registered physical address is Kimathi House along Kimathi Street in Nairobi County.
However, investigations by the Nation have revealed that the company operates from a ninth-floor office on Fourth Avenue Towers in Nairobi.
Before moving to that location, the company owner operated a company known as Frac and Calp located along Tom Mboya Street in Nairobi.
From an online search for the name Frac and Calp, the company states that it is out to bridge the gap for all employment needs abroad. The company also states that it offers employment opportunities.
Lawyer Jimmy Sausi, who represents the company, told the Nation that the company has never been implicated in fraud in the past.
Mr Sausi said his client started the business without an office before he opened an office along Tom Mboya Street and later another one in Upper Hill area.
“He was doing well and people were leaving the country to take up jobs in various organisations abroad,” the lawyer told the Nation.
Some job seekers who applied while the business owner was operating from the Frac and Calp office, told the Nation that they were unaware of the other office.
"All this time I knew he was still the one in charge of the Frac and Calp office," said one victim who is seeking a Sh250,000 refund.
Another victim, who is also seeking a similar amount from the company, said they were aware that another office had been opened in Upper Hill.
According to the victim, one director of the company even offered some of his would-be victims jobs as recruitment agents.
"He told me how the job had helped many people and gave the example of someone who had bought a top-of-the-range vehicle and a house within a year," our source said.
The victim now says that the people he connected with the company in the hope that they would leave the country are now demanding a refund from him.
Our source said his operations in Nairobi have become difficult because he, too, has been dragged into the mess.
Ms Sheila Kavaya is yet another recruitment agent who has found herself in trouble for acting on behalf of the company.
Ms Kavaya says she has been sued by Mr Kioko for allegedly interfering with the operations of the company.
Mr Kioko alleges that Ms Kavaya was responsible for a raid that resulted in the closure of his office without a court order.
In court papers, Mr Kioko has also accused Ms Kavaya of demanding bribes to allow the company to operate.
Ms Kavaya says she was a sub-agent who connected 35 people to Mr Kioko with a promise that they would be taken to Canada.
This happened in 2022 with each job seeker being asked to pay a fee of Sh850,000.
She only realised that they had been scammed after the company took too long to facilitate their travel to Canada as promised.
At that point, she asked the company to refund the cash for her return the same to those who had paid up.
The Nation has messages between Mr Kioko and Ms Kavaya. In one message, Ms Kavaya demands refunds on behalf of the people she introduced to the company.
Meanwhile, some of the victims are now living in fear after receiving threats on their phones against exposing the matter further.
When the Nation reached out to Mr Kioko, he said those demanding refunds should collect refund forms from his office.
"Those who are demanding their money back can fill out the refund forms and we will follow up their cases," Mr Kioko said at his lawyer's office in Nairobi.
