THE Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has revealed that its collaboration with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has led to a major breakthrough with the arrest of one Emmanuel Adedeji Oluwatosin, who is on the wanted list of the FBI.

Sokoto Zonal Head of EFCC, Abdullahi Lawal while parading the suspect in Sokoto explained that the suspect was arrested in Kaduna on August 29.

A statement by Wilson Uwujaren, Head of Media and Publicity at the Commission   revealed that two cars: Mercedes Benz E550 and Mercedes Benz C450, an  IPhone, laptops, modem and SIM cards were recovered from the suspect’s residence.

Quoting Lawal, the EFCC spokesperson added that the suspect and his accomplices both in Nigeria and overseas, acquired retirement account information (RAI) and personally identifiable information (PII) of multiple persons which they fraudulently used to wire funds into newly created business bank accounts tied to the fraudulently created business.

“The proceeds were then converted into crypto currency,” he said.

He said preliminary investigation had so far revealed that about  N  1,  437,  889,  157.15  passed  through  the suspect’s accounts noting that the Commission has also traced the sum  of  N  70,  000,000.00  he  invested  somewhere.

“Efforts are on to recover the money,” Lawal was quoted as said.

The arrest of a Nigerian entrepreneur, Obinwanne Okeke popularly known as Invictus Obi in August by the FBI over a $12M fraud committed in the US has led to a manhunt of all involved in the internet fraud.

Barely a week after his arrest, Federal Prosecutors of the United States Department of Justice on  said 80 persons in the US and Nigeria, were believed to have stolen about $1.1 billion through several various fraudulent schemes in seven months.

They were indicted in a 252-count charge by the prosecutors reported by nearly 14,000 petitioners.

The Commission had on Monday disclosed it had arrested a suspected female cyber fraudster who was declared wanted by the FBI, in Benin City, Edo State.

That was after the anti-graft agency said it arrested three others — Joseph Oyediran, Ogbonnah Atoukaritou and Alpha Chidi Egbeonu, all on August 30 at different parts of the country.

In a related development, Lawal said the Commission has arrested a wanted suspect, Muzakkir Muhammad, through a sister agency, in connection with an alleged case of obtaining money under false pretenses and production of fake currencies.

He said the suspect was reported by one of his victims, Abdullahi Ibrahim after he had defrauded another victim, Samaila Sani, a Bureau de Change operator to the tune of $33,850.

“Meanwhile, the first complainant, Ibrahim alleged that Muzakkri Muhammad collected the sum of N2, 350,000 from him on the pretext of producing the $100,000 for him, which he has neither produced nor refunded the naira equivalent given to him.

“However, a search was conducted at his house and several incriminating items which the suspect used in luring and defrauding his victims were recovered.

“His method is to make his victims believe that he possesses some form of supernatural abilities of communicating with ‘spirits’, while in the actual sense, they were mere tricks which he used to deprive them of their hard earnings.”

Also paraded were four Sokoto Local Government officials who defrauded civil servants on the payroll of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) by deducting irregular amount of monies from their salaries since 2013.

The Suspects were Ishaka Abdullahi (Education Secretary), Abdullahi Idris (Deputy Education Secretary), Abdullahi Dadi (Cashier), and Idris Wamabai (Accountant).

Uwujaren disclosed that the suspects would soon be charged to court.