Nigerian courts have sentenced one-year imprisonment to a man accused of deceiving a cryptocurrency investor. On its charge sheet, the prosecution said that the man had contravened Nigeria’s anti-fraud laws and hence should be punished accordingly.
False Cryptocurrency Investment Plan
An indictment has been issued by a Nigerian court for a man who used a fraudulent cryptocurrency platform to scam $680 from an innocent investor. According to the Port Harcourt Zonal Command (EFCC), Obu Ebibo (alias Kenneth Gibson) was sentenced to one-year imprisonment.
The court however said the accused has an option to pay a fine of $1,180 (N500,000) which he can deposit into the government’s consolidated revenue account. According to a PM News report that details the accused’s alleged crimes, by committing the alleged offenses, Ebibo was in contravention of Nigeria’s anti-fraud laws.
“That you Obu Gabriel Ebibo (alias Kenneth Gibson) on or about the 1st November 2021, in Port Harcourt, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with intent to defraud obtained an aggregate sum of Six Hundred and Eighty United States Dollars ($680.00 USD) on the pretence that, the money was meant for cryptocurrency investment, a pretext you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1 (2) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud-Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act,” the accused’s charge sheet states.
Ebibo had admitted guilt and the prosecution counsel was only F.O. Amama has reportedly requested that the court sentences the accused in this manner. However, Ebibo’s lawyer argued that since his client had accepted charges against him, the court should show mercy to the first-time offender.
The judge handed down the sentence.
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