Court Orders Forfeiture Of N13m Seized From Alleged Fraudster

Justice Dehinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of N13 million initially recovered from an alleged fraudster, Chinedu Ezeudemba, to the federal government.

Justice Dipeolu gave the order after entertaining an application brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Ezeudemba was accused of obtaining money from his victim under the false pretence of having a Chinese Yuan to exchange for Naira.

The Judge had earlier ordered the interim forfeiture of the funds and mandated the publication of the order in a national newspaper, allowing any interested parties to contest the final forfeiture.

Moving the application for the final forfeiture of the money, the EFCC lawyer, Christina Okezie, informed the court of an affidavit from Abubakar Gozaki, an EFCC operative, supporting the request.

In the affidavit, Gozaki claimed that the anti-graft agency received a petition against Liu Hui Jing and Ezeudemba for allegedly obtaining N40,000,000 through false pretences and forgery.

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The EFCC operative alleged, “In June 2023, Chinedu Vincent Ezeudemba falsely claimed to the victim that he had Chinese Yuan and wanted to exchange it for Naira. Based on this deception, N40,000,000 was transferred to Ezeudemba’s Opay account number 9065945449.

“However, upon receiving the payment, the suspect failed to transfer the Chinese Yuan to the victim and instead issued fake telex copies,” Gozaki claimed.

The affidavit further revealed that investigative findings indicated Ezeudemba converted N27,000,000 for personal use, leaving an outstanding balance of N13,000,260 now subject to final forfeiture.

Okezie argued that the N13 million found in Ezeudemba’s account was reasonably suspected to be proceeds from unlawful activities.

She also pointed out that the interim forfeiture order had been duly published in compliance with the court’s directive.

After listening to Okezie’s arguments, Justice Dipeolu found merit in the application and ordered the final forfeiture of the N13 million to the federal government of Nigeria.