Justice Alexander Owoeye of Federal High Court, Lagos, has ordered the permanent forfeiture of digital assets totalling $222,729.86 USDT, which were recovered from some Chinese citizens by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Justice Owoeye ordered the final forfeiture of the assets to the federal government after entertaining an ex-parte motion filed by an EFCC counsel, Zeenat Atiku.
The assets were part of the recoveries made from a syndicate of 792 alleged cryptocurrency investment and romance fraudsters arrested on December 10, 2024, by EFCC operatives during a sting operation dubbed the “Eagle Flush Operation.”
Atiku, who had informed the judge that the assets were proceeds of crime, supported the motion with an affidavit sworn to by an investigating officer at the EFCC, Muazu Abdulrahman.
In the affidavit, Abdulrahman had averred that the syndicate financed its operations through a Nigerian-registered company known as Genting International Co. Limited (GICL).
He also claimed that, “Over the course of its activities, Genting International Co. Limited’s Union Bank account 0225100403 received an astonishing sum of over N2,268,839,161 from April 12, 2024, to December 23, 2024.
“An analysis of the company’s bank statement revealed that the primary inflows into the account originated from two cryptocurrency vendors: Chukwuemeka Okeke and Alhassan Aminu Garba.
“Okeke and Garba were invited for questioning and willingly provided their statements under caution. They received USDT valued at $2,386,642 from the syndicate through purchases made via peer-to-peer trading. They also identified the wallet addresses used by the group to transfer funds (USDT),” he stated
Atiku further alleged that the assets were reasonably suspected to be instruments of computer-related fraud and money laundering, and requested the court to forfeit them to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
After listening to the lawyer, Justice Owoeye ruled, “I have read the motion and its attachments and found sufficient merit in the application. Consequently, the motion succeeds and is hereby granted.”
