Mariam Mbula: the thousand faces of a serial crook

Mariam Mbula es a serial crook. Among her many identities to consume her scams, she introduced herself as a successful entrepreneur, a fashion icon, the guru of an obscure evangelical church, and even sold a (fake) self-help story in a studio. British television station.

Surprisingly active on social media, where she acts as a sort of “influencer” fascinated by luxury on her Twitter and Instagram accounts, Mbula – who sometimes changes her last name to Mola and sometimes calls herself Cindy – introduces herself as a “self-taught businesswoman”, wrapped in Brand clothes.

The first time she made the cover of the British tabloids was four years ago, after being interviewed on an ITV prime-time show. She reached the presenter’s empathy by recounting how she rebuilt a life marked by a “bad relationship” from her youth which led her to prison.

After giving birth in prison in May 2015, she decided to put her troubled past behind her, said Mbula, who according to the London Metropolitan Police has racked up at least 13 fraud charges.

A “dangerous actress”

Contrary to this compelling and “manipulated” account, according to her victims, the BBC portrayed her this month in a documentary like a “hoax artist”, chameleon, unscrupulous, and capable of crafting and executing sophisticated plots to exploit impressionable or vulnerable people.

American Tamara Gough doesn’t fit that profile at all, but says she was another collateral victim of Mariam’s shady vicissitudes, when she found out she had established a relationship with her now ex-husband.

“It all started with a receipt in my husband’s name, with another address,” says Gough, whose bank account with her ex left thousands of pounds to add “until five bank accounts different “belonging to Mbula.

The American calculates that she lost “between 77,000 and 100,000 pounds (between 85,400 and 111,000 euros) for dinners, hotels, shopping, and even in the rental of a property ”.

Unmasking Mbula became a mission for Gough, who alerted the producers of the ITV show and was contacted by a private investigator already on the scammer’s trail.

“Mbula is a bit like an actress who makes people surrender at her feet. She adapts to all of these identities and knows when and how to do it. (…) She also knows how to work on the vulnerability side and if someone comes to her with a problem, he knows how to show solidarity, ”he says.

Chemina Dixon, a 33-year-old British teacher, also fell into the networks of Mariam – then called Cindy – although her story dates back over a decade, after agreeing on the same circle friends from college.

“The impression you had of her at the time was that of a very sociable person, very involved in fashion issues, designers and things like that. She seemed like a nice and cheerful person,” says -he.

When Dixon told him he was traveling to Jamaica with his mother and daughter to visit his sick grandmother, Mbula quickly he offered to buy the tickets on the pretext that for their work, he would get them discounts.

“My mother made him the first transfer and she told him that for some reason the money had not reached her (…) So, in order not to waste time, she basically asked him to transfer to again the same amount, and she told him that she made sure to send us the tickets and return the extra amount, ”he said.

The amount – around 2000 pounds (2200 euros) – He disappeared and Mbula disappeared, blocking Dixon on his social media.

“The last time I spoke to her I was very stressed. I called her and said, ‘If you did what I think you did, I’d better not find you on the street.

Reinvention as a spiritual guru

Years later, he would hear about his operations again, when he discovered that the scammer had created a shoe rental business luxury -Cindy’s Choos- in a “pop-up” store that opened in a shopping center in East London.

There he would continue to concoct new frauds until the police closed it. After letting time pass, Mbula reinvented himself with the initiative Mentor Matcher, in which, with another partner – whom he cheated – he put businesswomen in touch with events organized in luxury venues.

According to the BBC, his criminal curriculum vitae includes links to a criminal organization in Italy, which employed fake credit cards to “buy” luxury goods, and covers the passage in prison in Spain or Belgium.

It is difficult to follow Mola’s criminal trajectory chronologically. During her stay in a Spanish prison – whose name the BBC does not reveal – for a crime of fraud, she won the trust of another British prisoner – mother of several children, including one with Down’s syndrome – to whom she promised to contribute to the achievement. conditional.

According to a daughter of this prisoner, Mbula posed as an official at the British consulate in Spain to call the family and promise a bond in exchange for 15,600 pounds (17,287 euros). They were ruined and eventually expelled.

His last criminal adventure was to play a spiritual guru at the controversial Evangelical Spac Nation Church, an interviewed congregation – which many equate to a cult – investigated by police for allegedly financially exploiting its parishioners.

The church, founded by Nigerian pastor Tobi Adegboyega, is under investigation for pressuring its parishioners to sell their blood and also asking them for large sums of money that would fund the style of luxurious life of its leaders.

At this point, as the evangelical “pastor” of the Spac nation, Mbula gave “motivational” lectures. As the police continue investigations that could lead her, once again, to prison, her victims wonder what her next deception will be.

By Patricia Rodríguez, EFE

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