Court Orders Final Forfeiture of $222,729.86USDT Recovered from Chinese in Lagos

Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Monday, July 21, 2025, ordered the final forfeiture of digital assets to the tune of $222,729. 86 USDT( Two Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand, Seven Hundred and Twenty Nine Dollars,  Eighty Six cents)  recovered from Chinese involved in cyber-terrorism and internet fraud. 

The assets form parts of the recoveries made from members of a syndicate of 792 alleged crypto currency investment and romance fraud suspects arrested on December 10, 2024 in Lagos during an operation tagged “Eagle Flush Operation” by operatives of the EFCC.  

The judge gave the order, following an ex parte motion filed on July 18, 2025 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, through its counsel, Zeenat Atiku.  

Moving the application for the final forfeiture on Monday , Atiku told the court that the application was supported by an affidavit deposed to by Muazu Abdulrahman, an investigating officer of the EFCC. 

In the affidavit, Abdulrahman told the court that the syndicate financed its operations through a Nigerian-registered company known as Genting International Co. Limited (GICL).  

According to him, “Over the course of its activities, this company's Union Bank account 0225100403 received a staggering sum of over N2.268,839,161 (Two Billion, Two Hundred and Sixty-Eight Million, Eight Hundred Thirty-Nine Thousand, One Hundred Sixty-One Naira) from April 12, 2024 to December 23, 2024. 

“An analysis of the company's bank statement revealed that the primary inflows into the account originated from two cryptocurrency vendors: Chukwuemeka Okeke and Alhassan Aminu Garba. 

“Furthermore, Okeke and Garba were invited for questioning and they willingly provided their statements under caution. They reported that they received a total USDT valued at $2,386,642 from the syndicates, resulting from USDT purchased through peer-to-peer trading. They also identified the wallet addresses utilized by the group for transferring funds (USDTs).” 

Atiku, therefore, submitted that the assets are reasonably suspected to be instruments of computer-related fraud and money laundering and prayed the court to forfeit them to the Federal Government of Nigeria. 

In his ruling, Justice Owoeye said: “I have read the motion and attachments and found sufficient merit in the application. 

“Consequently, the motion succeeds and is hereby granted.”