Justice Abike Fadipe of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos, has sentenced a Nigerian fraudster, Ekwue Joshua Femi to one year imprisonment for defrauding an American, Sheedy Morgan the sum of $20,000.
Femi was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before the court on two-count charges bordering on impersonation, obtaining under false pretence and money laundering.
One of the counts reads, “That you, Ekwue Joshua Femi, sometime in May, 2023 In Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable, with intent to defraud one Sheedy Morgan, a United States of America citizen, falsely represented yourself to be Mary Lanning Werner’ on your Facebook account and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 380 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
According to a statement issued by the anti-graft commission, Femi pleaded “guilty” to the charges preferred against him when they were read to him.
Following his guilty plea, the prosecution counsel, S.I Sulaiman, who reviewed the facts of the case told the court that the Femi was arrested sometime in September at Bana Hotel, Olodi Apapa, Lagos State, following credible intelligence received by the Commission.
According to Sulaiman, an iPhone 11, iPhone 14 and Mercedes Benz ML350 4matic were recovered from the convict at the point of arrest.
Sulaiman said that “Upon his arrest, he volunteered his statements. Investigations were conducted and forensic evidence were printed out from his phones and his digital assets. In his statement, he confessed to be into spamming and crypto investment fraud. He also confessed to have benefited the sum of $20,000 (Twenty Thousand United States Dollars) from the fraud.”
The prosecution council further tendered in evidence, the defendant’s extrajudicial statements, IPhone 11 and IPhone 14, Mercedes Benz, forensic investigation documents print out and digital assets, which were all admitted as exhibits by the court.
In his ruling, Justice Fadipe convicted and sentenced Femi to one year imprisonment, with an option of fine of N1,000,000.
The Judge also ordered that the convict’s mobile phones and Mercedes Benz be forfeited to the Nigerian government and that the digital assets recovered from him be forfeited and returned to the victim, Morgan.
