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

A Nigerian court has convicted and sentenced a man to a single 12 months in jail who is accused of duping an unsuspecting cryptocurrency trader. On its cost sheet, the prosecution stated that the man had contravened Nigeria’s anti-fraud legal guidelines and that’s why must be punished accordingly.

Fake Cryptocurrency Financial investment Scheme

A courtroom in Nigeria has convicted a guy accused of using a bogus cryptocurrency system to defraud $680 from an unsuspecting investor, a report has explained. In its ruling, the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the Financial and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) claimed the male, Obu Ebibo, whose alias is Kenneth Gibson, should serve a person yr in jail.

The court however explained the accused has an choice to pay out a great of $1,180 (N500,000) which he can deposit into the government’s consolidated profits account. In accordance to a PM Information report that details the accused’s alleged crimes, by committing the alleged offenses, Ebibo was in contravention of Nigeria’s anti-fraud legislation.

“That you Obu Gabriel Ebibo (alias Kenneth Gibson) on or about the 1st November 2021, in Port Harcourt, inside the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud obtained an aggregate sum of 6 Hundred and Eighty United States Dollars ($680.00 USD) on the pretence that, the funds was meant for cryptocurrency expenditure, a pretext you knew to be fake and therefore fully commited an offence contrary to Part 1 (2) of the Progress Charge Fraud and Other Fraud-Linked Offences Act 2006 and punishable less than Segment 1 (3) of the identical Act,” the accused’s charge sheet states.

Noting that Ebibo experienced pleaded guilty, the prosecution counsel only discovered as F.O. Amama is documented to have asked for the court to sentence the accused appropriately. Nonetheless, Ebibo’s attorney argued that since his client experienced accepted fees from him, the court ought to show mercy to the initial-time offender.

In handing down the sentence, the choose reportedly requested that the cellular gadget used by the offender be forfeited to the point out.

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Terence Zimwara

Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-successful journalist, author and author. He has penned extensively about the economic troubles of some African nations around the world as effectively as how electronic currencies can give Africans with an escape route.