The Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday has ordered the forfeiture of N280,555,010.65 found in the bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Limited and Invictus Investment Limited.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC told the court that the companies were owned by Obinwanne Okeke, “a strong leader of a cybercrime syndicate that specializes in business e-mail compromise.”
Following an application by the EFCC on Monday, Justice Rilwan Aikawa made an order for the temporary forfeiture of the sums of N240,250,904.46 and N40,304,106.19, which the anti-graft agency said it found warehoused in the Nigerian bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Limited and Invictus Investment Limited, respectively.
The EFCC lawyer, Rotimi Oyedepo, told the court the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of cybercrime and urged the judge to order their forfeiture to the Federal Government to prevent Obi from dissipating same.
Okeke, who is also known as Invictus Obi is currently standing trial in the United States of America over alleged $11m cyber fraud.
The 31-year-old Nigerian was, in 2016, celebrated by Forbes as one of the Africa’s “most outstanding 30 entrepreneurs under the age of 30.”
He was described by the magazine as “proof that there is hope for Africa.”
Obi was arrested in August this year by the American Federal Bureau of Investigation as the ringleader of a cybercrime syndicate, which had defrauded a number of American citizens to the tune of $11m “through fraudulent wire transfer instructions in a massive coordinated business email compromise scheme.”
