A fake officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ume Ifechukwu Clinton, has been jailed for one year for defrauding a Belgian educator and caregiver Axelle Mahieu, of the sum of €45,000 in a well-orchestrated online fraud.
The convict was sentenced by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Lagos, on Wednesday.
The development was made known on Thursday in a statement by the anti-graft agency.
The EFCC stated that the convict was arraigned on Feb. 22 this year on an amended 3-count charge bordering on impersonation and possession of fraudulent documents.
Clinton, however, approached the court for a plea bargain during Wednesday’s hearing.
The counsel for the agency, Bilikisu Buhari, called a witness, Damilare Adeosun, an investigative officer with the EFCC, who testified against the defendant and through whom different documents were tendered in evidence against him.
According to Adeosun, Mahieu was deceived into believing that Clinton was an official of the EFCC after he deceived her with an alleged EFCC ID card that she never knew was fake.
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“The defendant presented himself to be a staff of EFCC and introduced her to non-existing cryptocurrency investment while assuring her that she is in safe hands,” Adeosun tells the court.
“During the course of his arrest, the fake ID card was recovered from him along with several expensive wristwatches and a bundle of cash totalling about N150,000.
“He admitted that he made the forged ID card in Owerri, for N3,000, to gain the trust of the victim.”
Adeosun added that the investigation confirmed that Clinton transferred money received from the Belgian through cryptocurrency to his own Binance account and exchanged the same through p2p, crediting the same in Naira to his bank accounts in Nigeria.
Consequently, Justice Dada declared Clinton guilty as charged.
Dada, however, sentenced him to one year in prison.
The judge further ordered the convict to restitute the €45,000 to Mahieu within three months.