The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, has convicted and sentenced one Ekwue Joshua Femi to one year in jail for defrauding an American, Sheedy Morgan, of $20,000 in a scheme that began in 2007.
After being arraigned by the EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Command, he was sentenced to prison by Justice O.O. Abike Fadipe of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos.
The defendant was charged with two counts of impersonation, acquiring under false pretenses, and money laundering.
One of the counts reads:
“That you, Ekwue Joshua Femi, sometime in May, 2023 In Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable, with intent to defraud one Sheedy Morgan, a United States of America citizen, falsely represented yourself to be Mary Lanning Werner on your Facebook account and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 380 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
He pleaded “guilty” to the charges preferred against him when they were read to him.
Following his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, S.I Sulaiman, reviewed the facts of the case and sentenced the defendant to one-year imprisonment, with an option of fine of N1 million.
The judge ordered that the convict’s mobile phones and Mercedes Benz be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
He also ordered that the digital assets recovered from the victim be forfeited and returned to the victim, Sheedy Morgan.