A federal high court in Lagos state has ruled that N280 million linked to Obinwanne Okeke, a Nigerian entrepreneur known as Invictus Obi be forfeited by him.
Okeke is currently in a US prison, where he may be until February 2020, for an alleged $11 million fraud.
His trouble started when he was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at Dulles International Airport while leaving the United States. The FBI said they have been on his trail over the fraud he allegedly committed using his firms.
Justice Rilwan Aikawa, gave the order following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, October 7.
He held that the sums of N240,250,904.46 and N40,304,106.19, which the EFCC said is being “warehoused” in the bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Limited and Invictus Investment Limited, be temporarily forfeited to the federal government.
Rotimi Oyedepo, EFCC counsel, had said the funds were “reasonably suspected” to be proceeds of cyber-crime, and he asked the judge to order a forfeiture.
In an affidavit filed in support of the application, Ariyo Muritala, EFCC investigator, said the funds could be expended by Okeke and his cronies if the order is not granted.
“I know as a fact and verily believe that our investigation has revealed the following ear-aching and mind-boggling findings: (a) That the Obinwanne George Okeke is a strong leader of a cybercrime syndicate specialized in business email compromise. (b) That the said syndicate has defrauded many innocent and unsuspecting victims (g) That the said Obiwanne George Okeke has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States of America for cybercrime-related offences (h) That if these funds are not forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria Obiwanne George Okeke and his cronies will dissipate same,” he said.