Tobias Sylvester
A Federal High Court in Enugu has sentenced a final-year student of the Institute of Management Technology, Enugu, Okoro Joseph, to eight months’ imprisonment over $15,000 fraud.
Joseph was arraigned on Tuesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) before Justice Dugbo Oghoghorie on five counts bordering on impersonation and obtaining by false pretenses.
He was accused of impersonating Donald Woods and Kennedy Lordan and used pictures of white men to create fraudulent Hangout and Instagram accounts which he used to defraud an American woman, Lisa Spitler, of the said sum.
One of the five-count charges against him read, “That you, Okoro Tochukwu Joseph (alias Donald Wood), on the 11th day of March, 2020, in Enugu, Enugu State, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, while representing yourself to be Donald Wood, a financial investor in crypto currency, by means of a computer system, knowingly sent a message through your Hangout, knowing the same to be false, for the purpose of causing needless anxiety to Lisa Spitler and thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 24 (b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015.”
He pleaded guilty to the charges, upon his arraignment on Tuesday, following which prosecution counsel, Henry Onyekachi Anasoh asked the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
Justice Oghoghorie sentenced Joseph to eight months’ imprisonment and ordered him to restitute the sum of $15,000 to his victim, through the EFCC.
This is coming a few days after the same court sentenced another Internet fraudster, Ojike Maduabuchi, to two years’ imprisonment for obtaining money from Asian women under false pretences.
