Russian Woman Seeks Interpol Help, Threatens To Sue Kenyan Billionaire

A Russian woman has allegedly expressed her intention to sue a Kenyan billionaire businessman in the country after faulting the Russian judicial system for being unable to help her.

According to a report by the Russian blog Obzor-Gazet.ru dated Thursday, February 16, the woman, Natalya Semyonova, is threatening to sue the billionaire, Paul Ndung'u, whom she was in a relationship with after the oligarch came to Russia.

She expressed that her life has turned out for the worst, leaving her with no choice but to seek the services of the Kenyan judicial system.

"I just don't know what to do! My life has become a nightmare! The Russian judicial system is not able to help me, I want to sue in Kenya," she told the outlet.

Billionaire Paul Ndung'u shares a kiss with Russian Natalya Semyonova. /OBZOR-GAZET.RU

Ndung'u had travelled to Russia in June 2016 and met Semyonova by chance. He immediately charmed the girl, ordered expensive wines, and gave flowers as well as gifts. 

Ndung'u, who previously held shares at a local betting firm, reportedly promised the Russian woman that he would marry her and then take her to Kenya, buy her a luxurious villa by the ocean where she would live like royalty.

Semyonova was wooed by his promises but Ndung'u's generosity was cut short as he left to return to Kenya, promising her that he would fund her plane ticket, apply for a visa and send her money as soon as he landed in Nairobi, in anticipation that they would live happily together.

However, time passed, and Ndung'u neither sent her the money as promised nor did he give her a call. A month later, she realised that she was pregnant and alerted the billionaire, who then moved to block her.

Semyonova and her family are Christians and deeply religious people, so there was no question of abortion, meaning she firmly decided that "I will give birth". She sired a child on March 15, 2017, a boy whose name, as recorded on the birth certificate, is Alexander Ndung'u Semyonov.

Her hopes in the Russian judicial system were dimmed by the discovery that Ndung'u is reportedly not under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, thus her move to appeal to Interpol on the fact of fraud, as well as to the European Court of Human Rights, also known as the Strasbourg Court, based in France.

"I ask you to consider this material as an official appeal to all international competent authorities," she stated as quoted by the publication.

Ndung'u did not respond to the claims by the time of publication. Despite being a reclusive businessman, the expelled shareholder was in 2020 and early 2021 thrown into the limelight following the legal contest over the ownership of the local betting firm. He had accused one of the top executives of engineering an illegal takeover.

The billionaire, who is a shareholder and non-executive director of Life Care Medics, has been investing in private companies with the potential to capture the regional market as part of his plan to diversify from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE).

“I have invested in eight private companies. I’m currently evaluating others,” he stated in a past interview with the Business Daily.

The list of private companies he has founded, acquired or bought into includes a sports betting firm, and G-North & Son, an agricultural and hospitality equipment distributor he bought from the Philip Ndegwa family.

Whether by design or sheer luck, Ndung’u’s fortunes have enabled him to cultivate a circle of powerful and high-profile friends, including the family of the late Kenya's second president Mwai Kibaki and his successor, former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

“I am a businessman, not a politician. It’s sad when a legitimate business is caught up in a political circus,” he disputed.

One of his firms, Life Care Medics, was claimed to have been paid Ksh201 million by the Ministry of Health to make deliveries.

He started as an accounting clerk in 1991 before joining Pioneer Assurance, then trading as Pioneer general Assurance. It was here that he held the dual roles of chief accountant and investment officer and honed his skills as a stock picker.

Billionaire Paul Ndung'u. /BUSINESS DAILY

Ndung'u was then ranked among the top shareholders across various Kenyan blue-chip firms and has interests in other listed firms. In the 2000s, his portfolio on the NSE at one point peaked at Ksh4 billion and with some of the listed firms going under, he was quick to diversify his portfolio and retain his position as one of the wealthiest NSE billionaires.

Kenya’s move to fully liberalize its foreign exchange market in 1994 prompted Ndung’u to venture out the next year in 1995, starting off as the owner of a start-up forex bureau along Kimathi Street in Nairobi.

He went on to own two more bureaus, circumventing the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) law that prohibited forex bureaus from opening branches.