The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), yesterday, arraigned a Nigerian, two Chinese and their company at a Federal High Court Lagos, over alleged N3.4 billion fraud and conspiracy to destabilise Nigeria’s economic structure.
The defendants are Huang Haoyu, Friday Audu, An Hongxu and a company, Gentting International Ltd. They are standing trial before Justice Daniel Osiagor on a 12-count charge of cybercrime.
They each, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge. The prosecutor, Mrs Bilikisu Buhari, told the court that the defendants committed the offence sometime in 2024 in Lagos.
They were alleged to have conspired to commit the offence with one Dualiang Pan, who is now at large, to have wilfully assessed computer systems to destabilise the country’s economic configuration.
The defendants were alleged to have procured Nigerian youths, to falsely represent themselves as persons of foreign nationalities.They were said to have procured one Chukwuemeka Okeke, to retain the sum of $1.2 million in his crypto wallet, which they ought to know formed part of fraudulent activities.
They were alleged to have also procured one Alhassan Garba and Ifesinaci Jacobs, to retain the sum of $1.3 million in their crypto wallets, being proceeds of crime.
They were also alleged to have retained in the Union Bank account of Gentting International Ltd, the sum of N3.4 billion, which also formed part of the proceeds of their fraudulent activities.
The prosecutor claimed that the accused transferred among others, the sums of N106 million, and N913 million, to Dualiang’s UBA account, which also formed proceeds of their fraudulent activities.
The transfer, as well as several others, were said to have been made from Gentting Ltd. Besides, the defendants were said to have illegally negotiated a foreign exchange transaction with one Alhassan Garba, to the dollar equivalent of N1.1 billion, N962 million, as well as other sums.
The anti-graft agency alleged that the defendants engaged in the foreign exchange, without going through the official foreign exchange market, authorised by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
All funds were said to have formed part of the proceeds of their fraudulent activities. The offences, according to the plaintiff, contravene provisions of Section 29(2) of the Foreign Exchange Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2004.
They also contravene the provisions of Sections 18 and 27 of the Cybercrime (Prohibition) Act 2015, as well as Section 18(2)(d) and 21(c) of the Money Laundering Act, 2021.
The court adjourned the case to March 20 for a hearing of the defendants’ bail application.The judge, thereafter, ordered the defendants to be remanded in EFCC’s custody pending bail.
