A Nigerian man, Ume Ifechukwu Clinton, has been sentenced to one year in prison by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Lagos for defrauding a Belgian caregiver and educator, Axelle Mahieu, of €45,000 in an EFCC online fraud.
The sentence was handed down on Wednesday following Clinton’s guilty plea to an amended 3-count charge bordering on impersonation and possession of fraudulent documents.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned him on February 22, 2023.
According to the EFCC, Clinton had disguised as an EFCC officer to defraud Mahieu, who was deceived into believing that he was an official of the EFCC after he showed her a fake EFCC ID card.
“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.”
Investigations by the EFCC also revealed that Clinton transferred the money he received from the Belgian through cryptocurrency to his own Binance account and exchanged it through p2p, crediting the same in Naira to his bank accounts in Nigeria.
During the hearing, Bilikisu Buhari, counsel for the EFCC, 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.
Justice Dada declared Clinton guilty as charged and sentenced him to one year in prison. She also ordered the convict to restitute the €45,000 to Mahieu within three months.