One Igweneme Moses(a.k.a. Griffith Doyle), who defrauded a lady, Chantai Meadery, of two hundred and forty thousand, seven hundred dollars ($240,700) with the promise of “building a future together” with her in Switzerland, has been convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment.
The conviction was given by Justice A.T. Mohammed of Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Thursday May 28, 2020.
He was convicted following his arraignment by the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on July 23, 2019 on a 4-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence and money laundering.
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A statement issued by the EFCC Spokesman, Dele Oyewale, said one of the counts against the convict reads: “That you Igweneme Moses and Igweneme Nkeiruka Blessing (now at large)between the 13th and 26th March, 2018 directly took possession of the sum of $82,706,(Eight Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Six US Dollars) which you knew or reasonably ought to have known is the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wilt: obtaining under false pretence from one Chantai Helene Meadery and thereby committed an offence contrary and punishable under Section 15(2) of Money Laundering(Prohibition) Act, 2011 (As amended)”.
According to the statement, the defendant initially pleaded “not guilty”.
The statement reads further: “Meanwhile, in the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the convict used the pretext of fake emergency situations, to trick his victim in making a total of sixteen (16) transfers amounting to Two Hundred and Forty Thousand, Seven Hundred Dollars ($240,700) to the convict.
“The convict received all the money through his UBA account number 30020624272, a domiciliary joint account belonging to him and his daughter, Igweneme Nkeiruka Blessing. Further investigation also revealed that any time the domiciliary account was credited, Moses transfered the funds in United States dollars to a bureau de change operator who will then transfer the Naira equivalent to his daughter via UBA Naira account No. 2064404530.”
Furthermore, the statement revealed that Moses, at the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, changed his plea to “guilty”.
“Upon his guilty plea, the prosecuting counsel, T. M. Iko, urged the court to convict the defendant as charged and order the restitution of the total sum of Two Hundred and Forty Thousand US Dollars ($240,000) to the victim.
“Justice Mohammed consequently convicted Moses and sentenced him to one year imprisonment and ordered total restitution of the sum of Two Hundred and Forty Thousand US Dollars ($240,000) to the victim.
“The convict has so far returned the sum of One Hundred Thousand US Dollars (S100, 000) to the victim,” it concluded.