The Benin Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has secured the convictions of two FBI suspects and four others.
They were arraigned before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High
Court, Warri, Delta State, for impersonation, internet fraud and
operating a vessel within Nigerian Waters without due registration.
Patrick Erakposhere Onajokpe, alias John Mark, was arraigned on a two
count charge of fraudulently impersonating John Mark, through which he
defrauded unsuspecting American ladies.
One of the count reads: That you Chief Patrick Onajokpe (alias James
Mark) Glory Agbare (at large) Alfred Akpewe (at large) Elena Onah (at
large) sometime between 2014 and 2015 in Warri within the jurisdiction
of this honourable court fraudulently impersonated the identity of one
James Mark claiming to be a black American working in deep sea off coast
of taxes, USA, in your hush app account where you enticed unsuspecting
American ladies into romantic relationships online and in that process,
obtained the aggregate sum of $878,489,24 from ladies and you thereby
committed an offence punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(ii) of the
Cybercrime (prohibition prevention, ets) Act 2015 and punishable under
section 22(2)(b)(iv) of the same Act.”
The defendant pleaded guilty and the prosecution counsel, Aso Larry
Peters, prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendant
accordingly.
Justice Nwite convicted and sentenced Onajokpe to five years imprisonment, in the alternative, a fine of N6,000,000.
The convict lost a Range Rover Jeep, a Petroleum Filing Station, an
uncompleted plaza and phones. Justice Nwite also ruled that the
properties be sold with the proceeds restituted to the victim of the
crimes.
Also, the court convicted MacDonald Chukwuma Nnamdi, arraigned on a
two count charge of obtaining personal identification information and
using same to file fraudulent tax returns with the Inland Revenue
Service, USA.
One of the charges read: “That you MacDonald Chukwuma Nnamdi, Daniel
Mercedis (at large) sometimes between 2018 and 2019 in Benin City within
the jurisdiction of this honourable court did with intent to defraud
used attached e-mail to obtain personal identification information of
others online and used same to file fraudulent tax returns with the
Inland Revenue Service (IRS) of the USA and you thereby committed an
offence punishable under Section 36(1)of the Cybercrime (prohibition
prevention etc) Act 2015.”
The defendant pleaded guilty and Justice Nwite sentenced the defendant to three years imprisonment with an option of N1,000,000.
Similarly, the EFCC secured the convictions of Akinwade Olajide,
Onume Kingsley, Kelechi Ogbuiton and Seje Skinn, for operating a motor
vessel without due registration and licence from the appropriate
authority.
