BY SAM ALFAN.
The much published return of the giant betting company Sportpesa has suffered a major blow.
This after police told the court they are investigating fraudulent claims against betting firm Sportpesa hardly two days after the company announced its comeback only for a government agency to deny claims that the firm has been licensed to trade.
In a case filed before a Nairobi court, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) also sought an order compelling giant telco Safaricom to furnish detectives with details of the owners of paybill numbers, shortcodes and USSD, which were used by the company.
In the application certified as urgent by Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate David Ndungi, the police said the Milestone Games ltd was licensed by Betting Control and Licensing Board to carry out betting and gaming operations.
The license however, was later changed from Milestone bet to Sportpesa without authorisation by the Board.
Later, Milestone said it had been authorized by Sportpesa Global Holdings to trade under the name Sportpesa and also use the domain names, paybills and short codes previously used by Pevans E. A. ltd, the company that used to trade as Sportpesa.
“The board is of the view that the said paybill numbers are being used in fraudulent gaming activities. We therefore request to conduct investigations as to how these paybills, USSDs and short codes were activated and transferred from Sportpesa to Milestone Games ltd,” the application reads.
According to the police, BCLB is apprehensive that Kenyans are being defrauded by Pevans E.A ltd and Milestone using the numbers provided by Safaricom.
The court heard that Kenyans will lose money if the use of the paybill numbers 521521, 9551000and short codes 29050, 79079 as well as USSD code *790#, is not stopped.
BCLB filed a complaint by a letter addressed to DCI-Nairobi area headquarters alleging that the paybill are being used for betting and gaming fraudulently since the board had already stopped Sportpesa.
Detectives are likely to recommend the Director of Public Prosecution to charge the officials over fraudulent allegations.
