A lawyer and a businessman who allegedly defrauded a US national Sh139m in a fake gold deal were on Tuesday charged before the court. 

Nicholas Otieno Ndolo and Thomas Otieno Ngoe appeared before Milimani senior principal magistrate Zainab Abdul and denied three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses, conspiracy to commit a felony, and forgery.

The prosecution said that they allegedly committed the offense on dates between February 3 and 11, 2023, through a bank at Yaya Centre Branch Kilimani within Nairobi City County.

They are accused that jointly with others, not before the court, conspired to commit a felony namely obtaining money by false pretense amounting to USD 1,000,000, the property of Seth Adam Bernstein. 

Through their lawyers, the two businessmen pleaded for leniency claiming they have been out on a cash bail of Sh500,000 each before Kibera law courts where they had been arraigned last month pending investigations. 

They asked the court to maintain the same bond terms since they are not at flight risk.

The magistrate granted them a cash bail of Sh500,000 with two Kenyan sureties.

The case will be mentioned after two weeks.