Court Jails Graduate 2 Years Or ₦2m For Disguising As Flavour To Defraud American $53k ~ OsazuwaAkonedo #Chinedu #Courage #Dehinde #Dipeolu #Flavour #Ikoyi #Ikpaka #Lagos #news #Okoli #Thompson #Yvelte https://osazuwaakonedo.online/court-jails-graduate-2-years-or-%e2%82%a62m-for-disguising-as-flavour-to-defraud-american-53k/05/09/2024/ #EFCC Published: September 5th, 2024 Reshared: September 5, 2024 7:20 pm Federal High Court sitting in Lagos State, Nigeria has ordered a graduate to pay the
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00:00Federal High Court sitting in Lagos State, Nigeria has ordered a graduate to pay the
00:05sum of two million nairas as option of fine or he would spend two years imprisonment for
00:10disguising as if he was a popular Nigerian music star, Chinedu Okoni aka Flevo in April
00:172021 and acted as a lover boy to defraud an American woman the sum of $53,000.
00:24The convict was arrested in June 2024 by the Economic and Financial
00:29Crimes Commission, EFCC after three years from the date the crime was committed.
00:35As at April 2021 when the crime was committed, the exchange rate of a dollar to naira was 482
00:43nairas. This, likely, the convict defrauded the victim about 25.5 million nairas.
00:51According to EFCC, the convict has refunded 7.9 million nairas.
00:57Details of the report as presented by EFCC Public Relations Unit via news release on Thursday reads
01:04below. Justice Dehinde Adepeolu of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoi, Lagos, on Tuesday,
01:12September 3, 2024, convicted and sentenced Juan Ipaka Korech to two years imprisonment for
01:18presenting himself as Chinedu Okoni, also known as Flevo, a Nigerian singer, to dupe a United
01:25States of America citizen, Mrs. Evelt M. Thompson, of the sum of $53,000. Korech, a graduate of
01:33philosophy, was arraigned on Tuesday by the Lagos Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes
01:40Commission, EFCC, on a two-count charge bordering on cybercrimes and money laundering. Count 1 reads
01:48that you, Ipaka Korech, sometime in April 2021 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable
01:57Court, directly made a false statement, wherein you held yourself out as a Nigerian entertainer
02:03by name, Chinedu Okoni aka Flevo Nabanya, on your Telegram account, knowing the same to be false and
02:09with intent that the representation is relied upon for the purpose of procuring the issuance
02:14of financial instrument to yourself and thereby committed an offense contrary to and punishable
02:19under Section 22.3 of the Cybercrimes Prohibition Prevention etc.
02:44you
03:14you
03:23FCC to review the facts of the case. The defendant, Ipaka said, was arrested in Lagos on June 10,
03:322024. He added, upon his arrest by operatives of the Lagos Directorate, he volunteered his statement.
03:41In his statement, he confessed to have been involved in a dating scam, and that he used
03:47his platform to impersonate Chinedu Okoni aka Flevo Nabanya. He also confessed to having obtained the
03:54sum of $53,000 from one Mrs. Yvette M. Thompson under the pretense that he would perform on her
04:00birthday in Washington, D.C. in July 2021. The money was transferred through a Bitcoin wallet
04:07he created in order to receive the proceeds of crime. In his further review of the facts,
04:13Ipaka said, he also admitted to have forged the Nigerian international passport data page of Mr.
04:20Chinedu Okoni aka Flevo Nabanya and also created a fictitious email address, which he used to
04:26communicate with the victim. He had restituted the sum of seven nairas, $900,000 by raising a
04:34manager's check. Suleman, thereafter, applied to tender, in evidence, the defendant's extrajudicial
04:42statement, and bank's statement, printout of charts between him and the victim as well as
04:49the Bitcoin wallet statement from Binance. Justice Di Paolo admitted them as exhibits.
04:56Counsel to the convict, Bayo A. Philip, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy,
05:03adding that he is a first-time offender and he did not waste the time of the court.
05:08My Lord, he did not channel the proceeds of his offense into living lavishly. Rather,
05:15he used it to further his education and is now a graduate of philosophy.
05:20Consequently, Justice Di Paolo convicted and sentenced the defendant to one-year
05:25imprisonment on count one, with an option of fine of one million nairas.
05:30He was also convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment on count two,
05:35with an option of fine of one million nairas. The judge ordered that the money be forfeited
05:41to the petitioner and also remanded the convict in the EFCC custody pending the fulfillment of
05:47the order within 21 days. Corrigan's journey to the correctional center began when he was
05:53arrested by operatives of the Lagos Directorate of the EFCC for internet fraud.
05:59He was charged to court and convicted.