The Lagos Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Tuesday, February 18, 2025, arraigned four Chinese before Justices M. Kakaki and Ayokunle Faji, both of the Federal High Court, sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
The quartet are part of the 792-member syndicate of alleged cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud suspects arrested in Lagos on December 10, 2024 by officers of the EFCC in a surprise operation tagged “Eagle Flush Operation.”
While three of the defendants, Xia Guang Can, Li Xu Xin, and Zhang Xue Hui were arraigned on separate one-charge charges before Justice Kakaki, Lu Yubo was arraigned on a two-count charge before Justice Faji. The charges border on internet fraud, cyber-terrorism, possession of documents containing false pretence, advance fee fraud and identity theft.
The charge against Hui reads: “That you, ZHANG XUE HUI sometime in December, 2024 at Lagos within the Jurisdiction of this Honourable Court cause to be accessed computer system used for the purpose of destabilizing and destroying the economy and social structure of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable) under Section 18(1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act 2015”.
One of Yubo’s charges reads: “That you, Lu Yubo and Genting International Co. Limited, adult, on or about the 11th December, 2024 at No.7, Oyin Jolayemi Street, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, willfully caused to be accessed, a computer system which was organized to seriously destabilize the economic and social structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by procuring and employing several Nigerian youths for identity theft and other computer related fraud, and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 18 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention, etc.) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2015 (as amended).”
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They all pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when they were read to them, following which prosecution counsel, Fanen Anum and Ahmed Yerima asked the courts respectively for a trial date and for the defendants to be remanded at a Correctional Centre, while counsel for the defendants prayed for a short adjournment to file their bail applications.
Justice Kakaki adjourned till March 18, 2025 for trial, and ordered that the three defendants be remanded in a Correctional Centre, while Justice Faji adjourned till March 31 and April 3, 2025 for trial, and ordered that Yubo be remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Centre.
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