Emmanuel Ehkator, 42, has been
sentenced to 3 years in prison by a District Court Judge in the District of
Pennsylvania, United States for $11m fraud. Ehkator was also investigated by
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for criminal conspiracy to
commit mail and wire fraud. The accused has been ordered by the court to pay
$11,092,028 “in restitution” to his victims.
Ehkator’s property in Canada and the
“contents of several bank accounts” in Nigeria were also declared forfeited by
Justice Yvette Kane.
The EFCC Head, Media
and Publicity, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said the commission had in August 2010,
arrested Emmanuel Ehkator in Nigeria and was subsequently extradited to the US
a year after following his plea of guilt.
It was revealed that
Ehkator was part of an “attorney collection scam” in which he would contact US
and Canadian law firms by email claiming to be individuals or businesses
outside North America owed money by entities in the US and asked for legal
representation to collect money...
The prosecutor had said, “Often, the
prospective clients said the money owed came from a real estate transaction,
tort claim, or divorce settlement. Once the law firm agreed to represent the
out-of-country client, the law firm would be contacted by the US entity
purportedly owing money with an offer to pay the client by cheque.
“The debtor company would advise the
law firm to deposit the cheque in the law firm’s trust account, retain the law
firm’s fee, and wire the remaining funds to accounts in Asia.”
It was learnt that after funds from the
law firm’s trust account had been wired to the Asian bank, it would then be
discovered that the cheque that had been mailed to the law firm was a
counterfeit.
The counterfeit cheques, which appeared
to be drawn on legitimate accounts from well-established financial
institutions, often included a telephone number for the financial institution.
In an attempt to determine the validity
of the cheque, lawyers would call the number only to reach another conspirator
who would falsely verify the cheque.
Ehkator’s co-defendant, Yvette
Mathurin, was said to have been charged for conspiracy and was awaiting
extradition from Canada. Another co-conspirator, Kingsley Osagie, was arrested as
he arrived in the Atlanta, Georgia area from Nigeria and was said to be
currently awaiting trial in the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Source: Punch
No comments:
Post a Comment