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Court Jails ‘Gay Sugar Daddy’ For N2.3m Bitcoin Fraud

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Makurdi Zonal Command, has secured the conviction of one Ochigbo Adakole for dubiously obtaining N2.3 million worth of bitcoin from a website for gays.

Adakole was said to have pretended to be a gay Sugar Daddy’ on the online community and lured unsuspecting members to pay him $254 worth of bitcoin before they could access $5,000 which he would send to them as allowance for a sex romp.

Also, the antigraft agency secured the conviction of one Onah Owoicho for allegedly stealing N35 million through credit card fraud and Ahmed Musa for ATM fraud.

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The EFCC had arraigned the trio before Justice Abdu Dogo of the Federal High Court, Makurdi, Benue State, on separate one-count charges of criminal impersonation and obtaining money by false pretences.

The offences, according to the EFCC, contravene Section 33(1) of Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 and punishable under the same Act.

The charge against Owoicho reads: “That you Onah Michael Owoicho “m” sometime in September, 2021 in Makurdi, Benue State, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, fraudulently represented yourself to be an Online Credit Card Business person and obtained the aggregate sum of N35,082,668.87 as financial gain and benefit to yourself which was paid into your crypto currency wallet account and which you transferred to your GT Bank account No. 0118182244 and UBA Bank account No. 2144289015, a representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 33(1) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under same section of the Act”.

EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, said the defendants pleaded ‘guilty’ when the charges were read to them.

Justice Dogo convicted and sentenced Owoicho to one-year imprisonment with an option of fine of N3.5 million. His Lexus ES 350 car, Samsung Galaxy A51 and Techno T662 mobile phones and monies in the two bank accounts used in committing the crime were ordered to be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Adakole was sentenced to one-year imprisonment with an option of fine of N1.5 Million. He was also ordered to forfeit a Toyota Camry car 2009 model and monies in four bank accounts used in commuting the crime, to the Federal Government.

Musa on the other hand bagged six-month imprisonment with an option of N250, 000 fine.

benue stateEconomic and Financial Crimes CommissionefccMAKURDIWILSON UWUJAREN
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