A Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the interim forfeiture of digital wallet assets valued at $222,729 to the federal government.
The ruling was issued on Monday by Justice Alexander Owoeye following an ex-parte application filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Owoeye directed the EFCC to publish a notice in a national newspaper, allowing any interested party 14 days to appear before the court and show cause why the assets should not be permanently forfeited to the government.
According to the EFCC, the digital assets were recovered from a syndicate of 792 suspected fraudsters involved in cryptocurrency and romance scams. The syndicate includes 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.
During the court proceedings, EFCC counsel Zeenat Atiku told the court that the digital wallet assets were “reasonably suspected to be proceeds of an unlawful activity.”
Atiku said the agency had gathered intelligence on an alleged large-scale fraud scheme operated by foreign nationals in Lagos. She added that the syndicate financed its activities through a company identified as Genting International Co. Limited (GICL).
