Court Jails Bitcoin Investment Scammer Seven Years For N930,000 Fraud

The Gombe State High Court has sentenced a radiographer and self-styled bitcoin and investment guru to seven years’ imprisonment for defrauding his victim of N930,000.

The EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the judge, B.L.Iliya, on Tuesday, convicted and sentenced the defendant to jail for seven years without an option of a fine.

The statement said Sunday Anyanfelowa was arraigned on November 24, 2018, on a fraud charge.

The offence was said to be contrary to section 1 (1) and punishable under Section 1(3) all of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006.

Mr Anyanfeoluwa was said to have, in 2017, falsely represented himself in a WhatsApp Chat called “BIC Investment Giant” to be a bitcoin expert.

He, thereafter, convinced the petitioner to part with the said sum for bitcoin investment with the promise of high returns on the investment to the victim’s e-wallet account.

The commission added that investigations also revealed that the defendant withdrew the money sent to him from a Point of Sale (POS) vendor and diverted the proceeds to personal use.

Cryptocurrencies are digital or virtual currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum and others, that can be used to buy goods and services.

Last September, the chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, had said many criminals were playing significant roles in crypto-currency markets. He said virtual currencies had become their preferred mediums of exchange.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had barred commercial banks and other financial institutions from transacting with cryptocurrency in fear of the risks it poses to investments and the economy at large.