Police yesterday arrested two people suspected of being part of a cyber crime ring that conducted a sophisticated scheme through which they illegally obtained Rwf495 million from Tigo Rwanda.

However, the mastermind, only identified as Elvis, who was an employee of Tigo, is still at large and investigations are ongoing to locate his whereabouts, according to Rwanda National Police.

"The fraud was orchestrated by our own staff. Over a period of 12 months, the group defrauded the company’s account funds thought to be over Rwf495 million on the Tigo Cash platform,” Allan Mwathi, Head of Mobile Financial Services at Tigo Rwanda, said.

"This fraud only affected Tigo funds. None of the accounts of our Tigo Cash customers or agents was affected by the criminal actions.”

At a press conference yesterday, Tongai Maramba, General Manager of Tigo Rwanda reassured the over two million customers registered with Tigo Cash of safety of their accounts.

"Thanks to our high level of security they did not access our customer accounts. Tigo maintains rigorous security protocols, including safety mechanism, such as secret access codes, to counter unauthorised transactions on the users’ wallets. Hence, the fraud particularly affected the company’s generated revenues,” he said.

Chief Superintendent Celestin Twahirwa, the Police Commissioner for Public Relations and Media, said the suspects were apprehended after notification from Tigo and intense investigations that linked them to cybercrime.

"The two suspects are termed as Super Agents for the Tigo Cash platform. Investigations show that they connived with a Tigo employee who was in charge of electronic money transfer to carry out this fraudulent crime,” Twahirwa said.

"Instead of making payments to the rightful Tigo channels, investigations show that they channeled the money to a wrong channel for their benefit, over a period of 12 months.”

In order to prevent similar crimes, Tigo acquired support from regional and global experts from its London-based parent company, Millicom, to conduct a comprehensive review of its operational financial processes, the firm said.

Article 309 of the Penal Code stipulates that a person who fraudulently accesses automated data or processing systems, or intentionally uses private computerised data in an incorrect manner is liable to a prison term of between three and five years and a fine of up to Rwf5 million, or both.