The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and its sister agency, the Independent Corrupt Practices & Other Related Offences Commission [ICPC] have been declared wanting as the United agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) unravels Nigerians involved in cybercrimes, convicts and jails suspected criminals.
As at the last count, dozens of Nigerians are wallowing in various detention and correctional centers in the United States for various cyber related crimes.
Interestingly, the Nigerian Police, the EFCC and the ICPC seem to not know what to do and “completely out of the scene”.
The loudest of all convictions may be that of the CEO of Invictus Group, Obinwanne Okeke, generally knowns as Invictus Obi.
The Forbes-rated young Nigerian billionaire was arrested at the Dulles International Airport, while leaving the United States on August 17, 2019, by FBI over a $12 million (N4.3 billion) fraud.
He was arrested on the last day of his trip to the the country for allegedly defrauding top American companies of huge sums.
He was accused of scamming $12 million from a steel company by hacking into an executive’s office365 account and sending an email with a fake invoice to the purchase department.
His arrest came after Special Agent Marshall Ward of the FBI and the team he heads opened up an investigation in July 2018, following a petition by Unatrac Holding Limited.
Invictus Obi will later appear before an Eastern District of Virginia court and plead guilty to $11 million fraud.
He was later sentenced to ten years in prison for involvement in computer-based intrusion fraud scheme that caused approximately $11 million in known losses to his victims.
Interestingly, the Nigerian version of the drama started after the arrest, trial and sentencing of Invictus Obi.
EFCC approached a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos and applied for order to confiscate a sum of N280,555,010 found in the bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Ltd. and Invictus Investment Ltd. owned by the young billionaire.
EFCC had approached the court with “evidence” showing that the 31-year-old Nigerian obtained the said funds through means suspected to be proceeds of cybercrime.
In an affidavit filed in support of the application, EFCC investigator, Mr. Ariyo Muritala, said the commission assigned him and others to investigate a request for information on Okeke and three others by the United States Department of Justice, Office of the Legal Attache, US Consulate General.
Without hesitation, the court granted the request and down went Invictus Oil and Gas Ltd.
Lamenting Invictus Obi’s ordeal, an analyst Uzor Onyemaobi said that the Invictus Obi’s saga is disheartening not just because another Nigeria was yet again busted for fraud.
“It is disheartening because the rippling effect will be enormous. A lot of Nigerians are going to pay for yet another scandal by a single Nigerian,” he noted.
Another celebrated case of international fraud and arrest was of Instagram celebrity Ramoni Igbalode a.k.a. Hushpuppi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The International Police (INTERPOL) confirmed arrest of Hushpuppi for hacking into the United States unemployed database and impersonating citizens qualified for unemployment funds.
The INTERPOL also went on the trail of other accomplices in the alleged fraud who are resident in Nigeria to bring them to justice.
Special agent Andrew John Innocenti, in an affidavit attached to the charges against Hushpuppi in the US, said the main suspect and others identified only as Coconspirator 1 and Coconspirator 2, used to hack into the computers of their targets and move money from one account to the other across the globe.
According to the FBI agent, their Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud schemes “often involve a computer hacker gaining unauthorised access to a business-email account, blocking or redirecting communications to and/or from that email account, and then using the compromised email account or a separate fraudulent email account (sometimes called a “spoofed” email account) to communicate with personnel from a victim company and to attempt to trick them into making an unauthorised wire transfer.
FBI later grilled Mr. Igbalode over alleged involvement in diversion of $35 million COVID-19 fund and several days after his arrest, Hushpuppi could not deny the report surrounding his arrest by FBI.
Besides allegations of fraud, Hushpuppi, according to the United State Department of Justice, laundered money for North Korean hackers.
The revelation was known when federal prosecutors in Los Angeles unsealed a case against one Ghaleb Alaumary, 37, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada for his role as a money launderer for the North Korean conspiracy.
The spill over of Hushpuppi’s arrest also nailed Nigeria’s deputy police commissioner, “Super Cop” Abba Kyari.
Abba Kyari reportedly received N8 million from Hushpuppi to arrest and jail one Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, his co-conspirator, intercepted communication obtained by FBI indicated.
Kyari denied any wrongdoing after court document exposed how Abbas bribed him to arrest Chibuzo following a disagreement over the proceeds of crime.
He said the suspect was released after discovering there was no threat to anyone’s life, “and they are longtime friends who have money issues between them.”
“Nobody demanded a kobo from Abbas Hushpuppi,” Mr Kyari asserted in his Facebook post.
But details of their conversations indicated that the “Super Cop” received money to have Chibuzo detained for five weeks on the instruction by Abbas.
Hushpuppi will be sentenced by the United States Court on Valentine’s day, February 14, according to the United States attorney’s office at the central district of California.
Besides Invictus Obi and Hushpuppi, several other Nigerians have been arrested and jailed in the United States for various cyber crimes, including or romance scams and money laundering.
A mechanic was also jailed his role in an identity theft scheme in which conspirators tricked 10 banks into sending duplicate debit and credit cards, then used them to buy merchandise for resale in Nigeria.
Many more have been declared wanted by the FBI.
Reacting to the enormity of cyber crimes and how the Police, EFCC and ICPC have been found wanting, an analyst said:
“The volume of Warrants being processed by various United States law enforcement agencies for fraud and financial crimes linked to emails originating from Nigeria is alarming.
“Unfortunately, the Nigerian Police and the EFCC seem to not know what to do. Nigerian law enforcement is completely out of the scene.”
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