Imagine living a life of luxury, enveloping your body with Hermes and Louis Vuitton blankets and wearing Gucci sweatpants and limited-edition sneakers while flashing cash on social media. Then showing off a Richard Mille timepiece on your wrist while being chauffeured in the latest Mercedes Benzes or Lamborghinis … only to be spotted in the cheap and fast-paced Mirema neighbourhood in Roysambu.
On Wednesday, detectives based in Mombasa launched a manhunt for a man who is believed to be a South Sudanese who goes by several aliases including Don Solomon, Mukisa Okello, Tony Taban, Suleiman Malish, Yee, and Big Papa.
The man is suspected to be an international fraudster with fraud cases stretching from Melbourne in Australia to Kampala in Uganda and Nairobi.
Kenyan authorities have described him as a “self-styled millionaire who is wanted for depositing a bad cheque of Sh599,950 in favour of Naivas Ltd and fraudulently obtaining ten 55-inch television sets from Naivas Mwembe Tayari branch on March 8, 2023”.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) says that the suspect, who was previously arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts for forgery and being in the country illegally, has also been accused of patronising top hotels in the city and sneaking out without paying.
In one such establishment on Chiromo Road, the man on the run failed to pay a bill of Sh1 million after spending days at the luxury facility.
Through his flashy lifestyle, the suspect is believed to have previously gifted a TV host in Uganda a sleek vehicle, which was later discovered to have been stolen from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The suspect is also accused of fraud and related offences at various banks in Melbourne, Victoria State, in Australia.
Nation.Africa has established that the suspect was recently spotted in Roysambu’s Mirema Drive, where he is believed to be living and has since evaded two police dragnets.
With sketchy information about him, authorities from Uganda say that on several occasions, Big Papa has been hunted down by police in Uganda over fraud.
In 2021, he was arrested and imprisoned for impersonation, accumulative debts and electronic fraud.
No one knows when or how he left jail.
In Kenya, he is wanted for scamming Naivas supermarkets on March 8 this year.
“Around the same time, the fugitive is also said to have fraudulently obtained assorted steel rods from Bayfair Hardware at Bombolulu in Mombasa valued at Sh842,000 by depositing a bad cheque of a similar amount at the hardware’s bank account,” said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
“Part of the consignment was recovered at Mlolongo and one suspect charged vide CR 345/56/2023 at Shanzu Law Courts.”
Police believe that ‘Big Papa’, who resembles the late American rapper Notorious B.I.G. aka ‘Big Poppa’, known for his first studio album Ready to Die, shares photos of his flashy lifestyle on social media to hoodwink his next victim.
To many, Big Papa is a revered figure setting standards on social media.
Celebrities want to be friends with him more than he wants to be friends with them; he is followed by the continent’s top entertainers and partied with them, especially in Uganda.
A look at his social media reveals that some of the people he had taken pictures within Kenya and Uganda are no longer on his timeline, perhaps fearing the backlash once he is apprehended.
Investigators on the case who spoke to Nation.Africa said that they relied on his Instagram account to track and gather evidence of what he was doing.
“It has taken us more than a year to find who he is. We had to use social media to try and track him. We will find him,” an officer from the DCI office in Kasarani vowed.
“Big Papa, who flaunts a flashy lifestyle has also broken the hearts of a dozen city babes, who (were) wowed by his fake lifestyle (and) have fallen for him, only to be left in trouble (sic),” the DCI added.
The manhunt for Big Papa comes two years after another wanted fugitive scammer popular on social media — Nigerian influencer Ramon Abbas, also known as Hushpuppi, was arrested in Dubai in June 2020 over an extensive fraud scheme that left a trail of victims in the US, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
Hushpuppi flaunted a lavish lifestyle supported by laundering millions of dollars and was later sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison.
Hushpuppi, whose crimes also had a Kenyan angle, was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $1.7 million in restitution to two fraud victims, according to a statement from the United States Department of Justice.
Another Nigerian, Olalekan Jacob Ponle, who posted a picture on Instagram of himself standing next to a bright yellow Lamborghini in Dubai, was also arrested after authorities went through his social media accounts.
“Stop letting people make you feel guilty for the wealth you’ve acquired,” he admonished, wearing designer jewellery, and Gucci from head to toe. BY DAILY NATION