Court jails fraudster via virtual proceedings

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, secured the conviction of an internet fraudster, Lawal Sholaru, who bagged six months imprisonment or a N400,000 option of fine for defrauding an American, Mr. David Geobel, of $1,200 in an online scam. Sholaru was convicted by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Ikeja Special Offences Court, […]

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, secured the conviction of an internet fraudster, Lawal Sholaru, who bagged six months imprisonment or a N400,000 option of fine for defrauding an American, Mr. David Geobel, of $1,200 in an online scam. Sholaru was convicted by Justice Mojisola Dada of the Ikeja Special Offences Court, in a judgment delivered in a virtual proceeding.

The convict was arraigned on March 18, 2020 by the EFCC on a count charge of obtaining money by false pretence, to which he pleaded guilty.

The prosecution counsel, S. O. Daji, while reviewing the facts of the case, told the court that the defendant, in his statement to the EFCC, confessed that he was into a romance scam with the pseudo name, Alicia White, an American national, on Facebook and additionally posed as William Bale, a Major-General in the US Army, to defraud his unsuspecting victims.

In addition to the prison term, Justice Dada ordered the convict’s forfeiture of his Lexus ES 350 and any other property recovered from him by the EFCC, as proceed of crime to the federal government.