The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on
Monday, June 23, 2025, presented its first prosecution witness, PW1, Chidubem
Ogbura, a banker with Union Bank Plc, in the trial of Friday Audu, Huang
Haoyu and An Hongxu over an alleged N3.4bn, $2,562,203 cybercrime before
Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
They are among the 792 –member syndicates of
cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud arrested on December 19, 2024 in
Lagos in a surprise operation tagged “Eagle Flush Operation” by EFCC
operatives.
The defendants, alongside a company, Genting
International Co. Ltd., are standing trial on an 11-count charge bordering on
cyber-terrorism, internet fraud and money laundering to the tune of
N3,407,824,740.78 (Three Billion, Four Hundred and Seven Million, Eight Hundred
Twenty-Four Thousand, Seven Hundred and Forty Naira, Seventy Eight kobo),
and $2,562,203 ( Two Million, Five Hundred and Sixty Two Thousand, Two Hundred
and Three United States Dollars) brought against them by the Lagos Zonal Directorate
1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,
One of the counts reads: “That you, Huang Haoyu, a.k.a
Ken, Audu Friday, An Hongxu, Duliang Pan (at large) and Genting International
Co. Ltd, sometime in 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this
Honorable Court, conspired to willfully cause to be accessed, computer systems
organised to seriously destabilise the economic and social structure of Nigeria
(which prohibits and prevents cyber and related crimes) when you, with intent
to gain a financial advantage for yourselves and cronies, procured and or
employed Nigerian youths to falsely represent themselves as persons of foreign
nationalities, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27 of
the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024) and
punishable under Section 18 of the same Act”.
At the resumed sitting on Monday, the
prosecution presented its first witness, PW1, Chidubem Ogbura, a banker with
Union Bank.
Led in evidence by the prosecutor, Bilkisu
Buhari-Bala, Ogbura told the court that he received a letter of investigation
from the EFCC on December 16, 2024, requesting the account opening package,
statement of account and certification of identification.
Ogbura, thereafter, identified the response from Union
Bank to the EFCC.
He also stated that “The person who signed the
certificate of identification is out of the country on another assignment and
the bank nominated me to stand in for him.”
Buhari-Bala sought to tender the documents, including
the Union Bank report on account opening package and statement of account.
They were admitted and marked as Exhibit A by the
court.
Justice Osiagor, thereafter, adjourned the matter till
July 4, 2025 for the continuation of trial.
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