Justice M.G Umar of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna has convicted and sentenced Livinus Imoesi Oshioke, alias Alexander Lutz, to six months imprisonment for internet-related fraud.
He was jailed on Thursday, May 26, 2022, after pleading guilty to three-count amended charges bordering on cybercrime, upon being arraigned by the Kaduna Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
One of the counts reads, “That you, Livinus Imoesi Oshioke alias Alexander Lutz, M, sometime in 2021 at Abuja within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud impersonated one Alexander Lutz, a white male living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and claiming to be financially stranded when you falsely presented that your account domiciled in South Turin Bank with a balance of $3, 556,463.00 USD was blocked and that you needed help to pay the requisite fees to recover same which pretence you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 22(2)(b)(i) of Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015.”
The suspect pleaded guilty to the three -count charges when they were read to him.
Upon his guilty plea, prosecution counsel, Precious C. Onyeneho prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendant accordingly.
Justice Umar thereafter convicted and sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment and ordered him to forfeit the following items to the Federal Government, one Apple Macbook Laptop, one black and silver Dell Laptop, one Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and one Mercedes Benz SUV GLK 350 Model . Others are the sum of N4, 556,573.06 (Four Million, Five Hundred and Fifty Six Thousand, Five Hundred and Seventy Three Naira, Six Kobo), N82,438.80(Eighty Two Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty Eight Naira, Eighty Kobo) and N28, 000,346.25(Twenty Eight Million, Three Hundred and Forty Six Naira, Twenty Five Kobo) to forfeit to the government.
The court further ordered that all the forfeited monies, and the proceeds from the sale of the Mercedes Benz SUV should be handed over to the victim of the crime, an American named Marva Marrow, by the EFCC, through the United States Embassy, as restitution.
Oshioke’s journey to the Correctional Centre started when he was arrested by operatives of the Kaduna Zonal Command of the EFCC for internet-related activities. Investigations showed that he is a member of a four-man syndicate impersonating foreigners to defraud their victims. Specifically, he impersonated an American, Alexander Lutz to defraud another American, Marva Marrow of large sums of money.