Angella Muthoni Chegge-Kraszeski
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kenyan native admitted in federal court Monday that she did the legwork in an international scheme that redirected a $920,000 payment intended for a state vender to a dummy corporation.
Angela Chegge-Kraszeski, 33, who grew up in Kenya but has lived in Raleigh, N.C., for the last few years, pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud.
In May, the case made headlines in West Virginia, when state Auditor Glen Gainer III’s office discovered that three payments totaling roughly $2 million had not reached their intended destinations.
The following month, a federal grand jury indicted Chegge-Kraszeski in the scheme. In November, five more Kenyans based in Minnesota were charged with defrauding multiple state governments, including West Virginia, out of $3.34 million.
During Monday’s plea hearing, Chegge-Kraszeksi said she knew that she was involved in something illegal, but was largely in the dark about the scope of the scheme.
In 2008, during a visit to Kenya to visit her 14-year-old son and mother, she posed for a picture that was used by others to create a fake South African passport under the name Christina Ann Clay, she said.
The passport was express-mailed to her from Dubai, according to the indictment against her five alleged co-conspirators.
Following instructions e-mailed by her handlers in Kenya, she used that passport to incorporate dummy corporations with names very close to actual companies that provided services to West Virginia, she said. Instead of Deloitte Consulting LLC and Unisys Corp., the fake companies were named Deloite Consulting Corp. and Unisyss Corp.
Later, she traveled to Minnesota and opened bank accounts under the names of the dummy corporations, she said. She also bought postage for and mailed multiple envelopes, which she later
learned contained fraudulent eVendor Agreement forms, which rerouted legitimate payments to the new bank accounts, she said.
“I would send them out per instructions,” she said.
Subsequently, on March 19, a $919,916 payment intended for Deloitte Consulting LLC, which performed consulting services for the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, was rerouted to TCF Bank in Minneapolis.
Under questioning from U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr., Chegge-Kraszeski admitted that she submitted invoices to help transfer the bulk of the funds to Kenya. In addition, she negotiated a $70,000 cashier’s check and distributed the funds to Michael M. “Mikie” Ochenge, 33, and Albert E. Gunga, 30, two of the Minnesota defendants.
Using the Internet, her Kenyan handlers could monitor the accounts to see when payments arrived, but they could not transfer funds online, said federal public defender Mary Lou Newberger, Chegge-Kraszeski’s attorney. They wanted the transfers spread out, so Chegge-Kraszeski traveled to Minnesota several times to arrange for the funds to be wired abroad, Chegge-Kraszeski said.
“Did it occur to you that someone had been swindled out of that money?” Copenhaver asked.
“Yes, your honor,” Chegge-Kraszeski replied in a voice so soft that the courtroom’s microphones barely picked it up.
Ochenge, Gunga and the three other alleged co-conspirators — Robert M. “Robe” Otiso, 36, Paramena J. Shikanda, 35, and Collins A. Masese, 20 — are scheduled to be arraigned on Dec. 21.
A tearful Chegge-Kraszeski blew a kiss to her husband in the gallery as U.S. Marshals led her out of the courtroom. She faces up to 10 years in prison and restitution of $919,916 plus interest when she is sentenced on May 11. She may also be deported, Copenhaver said.
The investigation has been a joint operation with the Secret Service and the Internal Revenue Service taking the lead, with some help from the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Robinson.
In addition to West Virginia, Chegge-Kraszeski set up dummy corporations and bank accounts that targeted the state governments of Kansas and Florida, according to a stipulation of facts entered as part of her plea agreement.
According to the November indictment, before officials caught on, the scheme netted $919,916 from West Virginia, with an additional $1,288,037 stolen from Massachusetts, $869,546 from Kansas and $301,571 from Ohio.
Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723
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