Man sentenced to prison in Abuja for scamming victims in 13 countries, involving $592,000 pig-butcher scheme

The Federal High Court in Abuja’s Justice J.K. Omotosho sentenced Eze Arinze to prison on Thursday after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, proved that he had defrauded 34 victims in 13 countries out of $592,000 (fifty-nine thousand US dollars).

Arinze was re-arrested on a single count accusation that included impersonation and acquiring money by butchering pigs.

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According to Obasanjo News24, pig butchering scams are a particular kind of fraud in which perpetrators entice victims into virtual connections in an attempt to gain their trust before persuading them to make cryptocurrency platform investments.

“That you, EZE HARRISON ARINZE alias Charlotte Brain, sometime between April, 2021 and December, 2022 in Abuja, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, did fraudulently impersonate one Charlotte Brain, a purported owner of digitrades.netxxxxxxxxxxxx investment platforms on telegram and in that assumed character obtained cryptocurrency worth $592,000.00 (Five Hundred and Ninety Two US Dollars) from Coinbase exchange users, through your bitcoin address -333AgHuT8wAhowRBQZ2ASxxxxxxxx domiciled with Coinbase, a Virtual Asset Service Provider and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 22(3)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 22 (4) of the same Act.” This is the amended count charge levied against Arinze.

After reading the charge, the defendant entered a guilty plea, according to an EFCC statement.

Prosecution attorney Christopher Mshelia urged the court to find the defendant guilty and sentence him according to the charges in light of the plea.

Earlier, Ogunjobi Olalekan, an EFCC detective and prosecuting witness, concluded his main testimony by informing the court that the evidence gathered during the investigation was based on the defendant’s email printout, other digital currency platforms, his Telegram page code named “Digi-trade,” and responses from banks totaling $592,000 in cryptocurrency as of December 4, 2023.

The defendant was then given a warning before being allowed to speak, he continued.

Arinze was found guilty by Justice Omotosho and given a sentence of three years in jail, with the possibility of a fine of N3,000,000.00 (three million naira only). According to his statement, 11.07 Bitcoins, which were valued at $461,280.70 on December 4, 2023, will be returned to the 34 victims who were identified from 13 countries.

The judge also ruled that a parcel of land measuring roughly 1380.609 square metres, situated at plot No. 34 Anioma Layout, Umuchigbo Iji-nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of Enugu State, be forfeited to the Federal Government. The total amount of N37, 977,108 domiciled in his bank accounts was also ordered to be forfeited.

Beginning his journey to the Correctional Centre, Arinze assumed the identity of Charlotte Brain, set up a fake investment platform on Telegram called digitrades.netxxxxxxxxxxxx, and using that fictitious account, he obtained cryptocurrency valued at $592,000.00 (Five Hundred and Ninety Two US Dollars) from Coinbase exchange users using his bitcoin address. Burundi, Cameroun, Costa Rica, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Rwanda, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, United States of America, and Zimbabwe are among the countries from which his victims hail.