Court Orders Final Forfeiture of N235m from Invictus CEO

Court Orders Final Forfeiture of N235m from Invictus CEO.

 Invictus Obi Pleaded Guilty to N4.2bn Fraud, To Spend 20 Years in Jail

The sum of N235,451,969 traced to the account of Obinwanne Okeke has been ordered by Justice A. M. Liman of the Federal High Court, Lagos to be forfeited to the Federal Government.

The development was revealed in a statement released by the spokesperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Wilson Uwujaren, on Thursday.

The accused, Okeke, the Chief Executive Officer of Invictus Group, pleaded guilty to two charges: computer fraud and wire fraud.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation in August 2019 arrested the Nigerian for fraudulent activities.

Okeke who was announced in the Forbes Africa’s Under 30 List in 2016, was apprehended for $11 million fraud after an official account belonging to a steel company’s CEO was hacked.

Representatives of Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and firm equipment contacted the FBI to investigate the hacking.

On March 23, 2020, Justice Liman ordered the interim forfeiture of the money domiciled in First City Monument Bank (FCMB).

This was a sequel to an ex parte application dated December 18, 2019, by the Lagos Zonal Office of the EFCC.

The Judge ordered the EFCC to advertise the same in any national newspaper for anyone to show cause why the said money should not be finally forfeited to Nigeria.

After the publication of the order, the EFCC on June 2, 2020, filed a Motion on Notice seeking seizure.

In court on November 12, 2020, EFCC counsel, I. Sulaiman, prayed for the confiscation.

Justice Liman had granted and ordered the final forfeiture of the money to the Federal Government.