An operative of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Idi Musa, testified on Monday against a social media celebrity, Ismaila Mustapha, popularly known as Mompha, charged with six billion Naira money laundering.
Mompha, still at large, is standing trial alongside his company, Ismalob Global Investment Ltd., on eight counts of money laundering.
On Monday, Mr Musa, the sixth prosecution witness, was led in evidence by the EFCC counsel, Suleiman Suleiman.
He told the court what he learned about Mompha and his company and the details of the allegations against them during an investigation.
He said that in 2019, the commission received intelligence information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that Mompha and his company led a conspiracy to commit cybercrime offences in the United States of America.
“The intelligence information indicated that the first and second defendants belong to a syndicate operating between Nigeria and across borders, defrauding some internet users.
“In the course of the investigation, some letters were written to Zenith Bank requesting the account statement of the second defendant and to the other banks linked to the first defendant, which include Fidelity Bank. The account statement received was analysed.
“During the analysis, we discovered N30 billion inflow through the account of the first defendant in Fidelity Bank and about N5 billion in Zenith Bank account,” he said.
The witness further said letters were written to the FBI and the Special Fraud Unit of EFCC regarding the defendant’s claim that he was carrying out Bureau De Change (BDC) business.
He added that the letter was written to the Central Bank of Nigeria and other relevant agencies.
The witness said that the investigation revealed that the first defendant did not reside in Nigeria, and efforts to get across to him proved abortive.
“A letter was written to the Nigeria Immigration Services on 16 October 2019 to arrest the defendant anytime he arrives in Nigeria.
“On 18 October 2019, the first defendant got the information that the commission was looking for him while he was in Nigeria. He quickly got to the airport and boarded a flight in order to escape arrest.
“The team got the information through immigration at the airport, but Mompha had already boarded the flight.
“He was arrested along with his properties and handed over to the EFCC,” he said.
Mr Musa told the court that over N30 billion was discovered in Mompha’s Fidelity Bank account. According to the EFCC investigator, the defendant claimed he was carrying out Bureau de Change business. The witness said the claim was false.
He added that the commission concluded an investigation on offences bordering on money laundering, operating BDC without a licence, in which Mompha was still standing trial before a Federal High Court judge Ikoyi.
“The combination of the FBI and an investigative report on Mompha’s iPhone revealed that Mompha’s iPhone was used to send account details to a United Arab Emirates telephone number he used to search for swift codes of a bank.
“During the course of his arrest, all the properties recovered were registered with exhibits keeper in the EFCC office, and most of the properties were released to him on bond, except his iPhone 8, which was still with the commission.
“All the items are proceeds of crime because when he was given assets declaration form to declare his assets, he did not include those items,” the witness said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the prosecution tendered two documents: the bank account statement of the first defendant and the asset declaration form, which the court admitted as exhibits and labelled exhibits P5 and P6.
The trial judge, Mojisola Dada, adjourned the case until 8 October for continuation of trial.
(NAN)
