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EFCC Recovers N222.574m From Fraudsters

Efcc-Operatives

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has recovered N222.574 million and foreign currencies from fraudsters in South East Nigeria.

Mr Johnson Babalola, the South East Zonal Head of the commission, disclosed this to newsmen on Wednesday in Enugu.

Babalola said that the amount was recovered from January to date following a renewed drive by the leadership of the commission.

He said that the monies were recovered from fraudsters, including politicians.

“We equally recovered 955,465 dollars; 10,000 Euros and 3,588 Chinese currencies.

“The zone has successfully concluded some of the reported cases where monies were recovered out of which 130,750 dollars was forfeited and paid into the coffers of the Federal Government,” he said.

Babalola said that 36 out of the 522 cases currently under investigation had been concluded and charged to various courts in the zone.

“Of these cases, we have secured a total of 14 convictions.

“The zone is currently investigating some high profile cases that are of public interest in which billions of Naira are involved,” he said.

He said in one of the cases, the suspect collected N4 billion from the public on the pretext that certain percentage of the said sum would be paid to them monthly.

According to the official, the suspect is currently in detention.

“This figure is just from two out of the over 20 accounts he operates.

“By the time we are able to burst into the other accounts we should be able to give the near accurate figure he has collected.

“It is suspected that a larger percentage of the funds he got from members of the public are stashed in an offshore account,” he added.

Babalola said that the commission had received no fewer than 150 petitions against the suspect from members of the public whom he duped.

“In the course of investigations, we were able to identify three choice properties and a multi million Naira warehouse that had been sealed and placed under investigation.

“Additional two exotic SUVs have also been recovered as the proceeds of the crime,” he said.

Babalola said that the commission also received petitions in a similar allegation against another suspect involving more than N9 billion.

“The suspect was alleged to have been operating something like a foreign exchange bureau from where he wired monies belonging to his victims to some offshore accounts.

“We have been able to trace about N9 billion of the illegally gotten monies to him,” Babalola said.

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