Nigerian Court Sentences Crypto Fraudster to One Year in Jail, Accused Given Option to Pay Fine

A Nigerian court docket has convicted and sentenced a person to at least one 12 months in jail who’s accused of duping an unsuspecting cryptocurrency investor. On its cost sheet, the prosecution stated that the person had contravened Nigeria’s anti-fraud legal guidelines and therefore must be punished accordingly.

Fake Cryptocurrency Investment Scheme

A court docket in Nigeria has convicted a person accused of utilizing a bogus cryptocurrency platform to defraud $680 from an unsuspecting investor, a report has stated. In its ruling, the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) stated the person, Obu Ebibo, whose alias is Kenneth Gibson, should serve one 12 months in jail.

The court docket nevertheless stated the accused has an choice to pay a wonderful of $1,180 (N500,000) which he can deposit into the federal government’s consolidated income account. According to a PM News report that particulars the accused’s alleged crimes, by committing the alleged offenses, Ebibo was in contravention of Nigeria’s anti-fraud legal guidelines.

“That you Obu Gabriel Ebibo (alias Kenneth Gibson) on or in regards to the 1st November 2021, in Port Harcourt, throughout the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud obtained an combination sum of Six Hundred and Eighty United States Dollars ($680.00 USD) on the pretence that, the cash was meant for cryptocurrency funding, a pretext you knew to be false and thereby dedicated an offence opposite to Section 1 (2) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable underneath Section 1 (3) of the identical Act,” the accused’s cost sheet states.

Noting that Ebibo had pleaded responsible, the prosecution counsel solely recognized as F.O. Amama is reported to have requested the court docket to condemn the accused accordingly. However, Ebibo’s lawyer argued that since his shopper had accepted fees towards him, the court docket ought to present mercy to the first-time offender.

In handing down the sentence, the decide reportedly ordered that the cellular gadget utilized by the offender be forfeited to the state.

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