A Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos State, has ordered the interim forfeiture of digital wallet assets worth $222,729 to the federal government.
On Monday, Alexander Owoeye, the presiding judge, ordered the interim forfeiture of the assets following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
Owoeye ordered the EFCC to publish the notice in a national newspaper, giving anyone with an interest in the assets 14 days to appear before the court and explain why they should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.
The anti-graft agency said the digital wallet assets were recovered from the syndicate of 792 suspected fraudsters arrested for cryptocurrency and romance scams.
Members of the syndicate include 114 Chinese nationals, 40 Filipinos, two Khazartans, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian.
The suspects were arrested on December 10, 2024, at a seven-storey building in Victoria Island, Lagos.
At the court proceedings, Zeenat Atiku, counsel to the EFCC, told the court that digital wallet assets were “reasonably suspected to be proceeds of an unlawful activity”.
The EFCC counsel said the agency had received intelligence about the alleged large-scale fraud involving foreign nationals operating in Lagos.
Atiku said the syndicate financed its operations through a company identified as Genting International Co. Limited.
