The suspect, lawyer Conrad Anangwe Maloba, is at the center of a gold trafficking scheme where Dubai-based investor Andrew Adel Gaballa wired Sh65.37 million into the trust account of Conrad Law Advocates LLP based on a fictitious Sales and Purchase Agreement for 600kg of gold dore bars.
A Dubai gold trader wired half a million dollars into the Nairobi advocate’s trust account at the Global Trade Centre, only to discover the gold never existed and the private jet shipment to Oman was never recorded by air traffic control.
Months later, a Syrian-linked timber exporter’s money landed in the same account through a fake ambulance tender staged inside Harambee House itself, with prosecutors alleging the same law firm’s trust accounts received both foreign fortunes.
Andrew Adel Gaballa, director of Dubai-registered Sakina Commodities FZCO, told Principal Magistrate P.K. Mutai in Milimani Law Courts that he was introduced to Maloba on the 15th floor of the Global Trade Centre in October 2025 through an American investor named Marshall Morrison and Kenyan facilitator Duncan Okonji Okaka.
On the strength of the law firm’s letterhead and signed agreements, Gaballa authorized two SWIFT transfers totaling USD 505,000 (Sh65.37 million) from Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, with USD 10,000 booked as legal fees and the remainder held in trust according to the firm.
The deal structure appeared simple: 600 kilograms of gold with 10 kilograms held as collateral in Nairobi while the rest shipped to Dubai, with agreements signed in January 2026 and collateral boxes displayed in a Nairobi storage facility.
The scheme shifted when sellers claimed war in the UAE prevented direct Dubai delivery, requiring rerouting through Oman via private jet at additional cost, introducing an insurance certificate from Arivid Insurance and cryptocurrency transfers into the payment chain.
Investigators later established Nairobi Air Traffic Control had no record of any private jet departure matching the claimed Oman shipment, and the collateral gold has never undergone meaningful forensic testing.
Duncan Okonji was arrested and charged at Milimani with conspiracy to defraud and obtaining money by false pretences, released on bond, while the Sh65 million has not been recovered.
When Gaballa attempted to leave the country, a red alert was placed on his passport causing him to be held at JKIA for hours, with the alert remaining for several days while he confined himself to his hotel out of fear, and Kenyan authorities have not explained why the complainant was targeted.
In a parallel case from January 2026, prosecutors allege Maloba induced Syrian-linked businessman Talal Yousef Yousef Zaitoun, tied to Swedish timber and machinery interests, to part with USD 470,750 (Sh60.8 million) on the promise of a Kenyan government tender for 500 Toyota Hiace ambulances worth USD 36 million.
The DCI’s account reveals extraordinary staging: Zaitoun flew in on Turkish Airlines, was collected at JKIA, lodged at Radisson Blu Arboretum, and escorted into Harambee House where men posing as senior Treasury and Health Ministry officials showed tender documents and demanded a performance bond of three percent.
Seven suspects were arrested on 10 March 2026 inside a twelfth-floor boardroom at Harambee House itself, while a lawyer connected to Conrad Law Advocates LLP remained at large according to the DCI statement signed by John Marete on 20 March 2026.On 23 April 2026, Maloba was released from a Nairobi police station after being held for 48 hours by detectives without being formally arraigned or charged, leading legal observers to question how a high-profile advocate could be detained that long without charges.
Since then, Maloba and his firm have repeatedly sought and secured High Court conservatory orders restraining the DCI and Director of Public Prosecutions from arresting, charging or prosecuting him over the Sakina gold matter, with the DPP opposing these applications as an abuse of process.
When Maloba was due to take plea on ambulance-related charges in May, a Kiambu High Court order halted that process, and he maintains his firm acted strictly as an advocate holding client funds in trust on instruction with no complaint lodged with the Advocates Complaints Commission.
Maloba’s courtroom history includes a 2024 High Court order for his firm to pay Sh10 million toward a decretal debt from a 2021 civil suit, and a 2022 Nanyuki ruling enforcing a professional undertaking against him over a Sh1.675 million property transaction.
The firm also reported manager Nazir Bhaduralli Nurmohammad Jinnah to police for allegedly absconding with firm funds and fleeing to the UK, though he was subsequently spotted still living in Nairobi, raising questions about unsupervised trust account access.
Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi publicly stated that a Syrian investor lost a lifetime’s investment thanks to this lawyer, a remark that carries significant weight from within the legal profession itself.
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