EFCC: How fraudster duped victims from 13 countries in Bitcoin scam

Ogunjobi Olalekan, the first prosecution witness in the trial of a suspected fraudster, Eze Harrison Arinze, has told the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, how the suspect received $382,000 worth of Bitcoin from his victims before his account was blocked by his Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP).

Olalekan, who is an officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), told the court on Tuesday, May 9, that Arinze’s victims were deceived into withdrawing their funds and deposited them into Arinze’s Bitcoin accounts, thinking that they were transacting legitimate businesses.

Arinze was arraigned on March 22, 2023, before Justice J. K. Omotosho on five count charges bordering on obtaining by false pretence and money laundering to the tune of $769,263.

One of the counts against him read: “That you, Eze Harrison Arinze alias Charlotte Brain, sometimes between April 2022 and December 2022, in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, did fraudulently impersonate one Charlotte Brain, a purported owner of Digitrades.Ltd/Digitrades.Net/Swiss-Earnings/Craystal-Trade investment platform on Telegram and in that assumed character obtained cryptocurrency worth $592,000.00 from your victims through your bitcoin wallet address-333…. Domiciled with Coinbase, a Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP) and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(3)(b) Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, 2012 and Punishable under the same Act.”

Another count read: “That you, Eze Harrison Arinze alias Charlotte Brain, while being the owner of Digitrades.Ltd/Digitrades.Net/Swiss-Earnings/Crystal-Trade, a purported investment platform on Telegram, sometime between 28th October, 2022 and 7th December, 2022, in Abuja within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, with the intent to defraud, obtained 9.771 bitcoin worth $168,000.00 transferred to your bitcoins wallet address 333…, domiciled with a Coinbase, a Virtual Assets Service Provider (VASP) under the false pretence that the said sum is for cryptocurrency investments, which you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.”

The defendant, however, pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when they were read to him.

At the resumed trial of the case, Olalekan told the court that “we requested for users on the platform who have deposited cryptocurrency to the defendant’s account and their names were provided. About thirty persons on the platforms deposited various sums of Bitcoin to the defendant’s account.

“Those that were identified were from thirteen different countries- the total inflow to his Bitcoin wallet address based on the response was about 15.5btc valued around $382,000 and the defendant has withdrawn about 5btc before it was blocked.

“We got the information of these users who deposited the funds, showing their user identities, location, money deposited at different intervals, wallet addresses where these funds were sent to at different intervals,” the EFCC officer said.

He further stated that other vital information like “the amount they sent, dollar equivalent, email addresses of depositors, transaction identities”, were also disclosed.

Olalekan told the court that 28 out of the 30 depositors were reached through their email addresses to establish the purpose of the various sums they deposited in the defendant’s account and what they knew about “Swiss-Coin, Swiss earning, Swiss coins and Digitrades.Ltd.”

After listening to the witness testimony, Justice Omotosho adjourned the matter for continuation on June 14, 2023, and ordered the remand of the defendant in Kuje Correctional Centre.

The Star