A
District Court in Middle Pennsylvania, United States headed by Justice
Yvette Kane has sentenced a Nigerian, Emmanuel Ehkator to three years in
prison for $11m fraud.
The
Nigerian, who has been trailed by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) for criminal conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud,
was ordered by the court to pay $11,092,028 “in restitution” to his
victims.
Ehkator’s property in Canada and the “contents of
several bank accounts” in Nigeria were also declared forfeited by
Justice Kane.
A statement by the EFCC Head, Media and Publicity,
Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said the commission had in August 2010, arrested
42–year-old Ehkator in Nigeria. He was subsequently extradited to the US
a year after following his plea of guilt.
The statement said the
prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney, Christy H. Fawcett, told the court
that Ehkator was part of an “attorney collection scam” in which he would
contact US and Canadian law firms by email.
It added that
Ehkator would claim to be individuals or businesses outside North
America owed money by entities in the US and asked for legal
representation to collect money.
The prosecutor had said, “Often,
the prospective clients said the money owed came from a real estate
transaction, tort claim, or divorce settlement. Once the law firm agreed
to represent the out-of-country client, the law firm would be contacted
by the US entity purportedly owing money with an offer to pay the
client by cheque.
“The debtor company would advise the law firm
to deposit the cheque in the law firm’s trust account, retain the law
firm’s fee, and wire the remaining funds to accounts in Asia.”
It
was learnt that after funds from the law firm’s trust account had been
wired to the Asian bank, it would then be discovered that the cheque
that had been mailed to the law firm was a counterfeit.
The
counterfeit cheques, which appeared to be drawn on legitimate accounts
from well-established financial institutions, often included a telephone
number for the financial institution.
In an attempt to determine
the validity of the cheque, lawyers would call the number only to reach
another conspirator who would falsely verify the cheque.
Ehkator’s
co-defendant, Yvette Mathurin, was said to have been charged for
conspiracy and was awaiting extradition from Canada. Another
co-conspirator, Kingsley Osagie, was arrested as he arrived Atlanta,
Georgia area from Nigeria and was said to be currently awaiting trial in
the same court.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the
Toronto Police Services and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were said
to be involved in the investigations into the wire fraud.
Ehkator’s involvement in the scheme was said to have made him responsible for losses of “more than $7m and up to $20m.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment