Two lawyers charged with 18 counts of forgery and fraud

Two advocates based in Migori County were on Thursday arraigned at the Kisii Law Courts for allegedly defrauding Sony Sugar Company of million of shillings.

Appearing before Kisii Principal Magistrate Ezekiel Obina, Samuel Odingo and Kerario Marwa were charged with forgery, uttering false documents and obtaining money by false pretense.

Odingo faced a total of 11 charges committed on diverse dates between October 6, 2015 and June 28, 2018 within Migori County.

He was charged with two counts of forgery of a judicial document and plaintiff affidavit, six counts of uttering false statements and three counts of obtaining money by false pretense from Sony Sugar Company.

Odingo allegedly committed the offences while pretending to be represent three clients of the company, who had filed civil suits against the company and as a result received close to half a million shillings from the company.

Marwa, on the other hand, faced seven charges, two of them being forgery and five of uttering false documents, which he is accused of committing between November 2, 2015 and June 21, 2018, within Migori County.

On forgery, Marwa was charged with forging a verifying affidavit and a plaintiff statement, while on uttering false documents, he was accused of knowingly and fraudulently uttering forged plaintiff statements in court.

They denied the charges and were released on a Ksh.50,000 cash bail or Ksh.100,000 bond with a surety of a similar amount.

The case will be mentioned on September 12, 2019.