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Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has charged Usie Otukpa Osang with 8 counts of fraud for his alleged relation successful a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam.
Key Takeaways
- The EFCC charged Usie Osang for a crypto scam that defrauded an Australian CEO of implicit $9 million.
- VASPA notes the lawsuit counters claims that Nigeria acts arsenic a harmless haven for planetary cybercriminals.
- Justice Egwuatu ordered the suspect remanded successful Kuje custody up of a July 14, 2026 bail hearing.
EFCC Charges Suspect Over Crypto Fraud
Nigeria’s anti-corruption bureau has charged a antheral accused of orchestrating a multimillion-dollar crypto concern scam that defrauded an Australian investor, officials announced.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned Usie Otukpa Osang earlier Justice Obiora Egwuatu astatine the Federal High Court successful Abuja. Osang faces 8 counts related to a fraudulent strategy involving AUD$8.43 cardinal ($5.6 million) and an further $3.64 million.
Prosecutors allege the fraud took spot betwixt May 2021 and May 2022. Osang and respective accomplices—who stay astatine large—used the aliases “Oscar Tyler” and “Ford Thompson” to deceive Brian Jacques Creigh, an Australian nationalist and CEO of Panacea Capital.
According to investigators, the radical convinced Creigh to put successful “Liquid Assets Group,” a fictitious online crypto-trading level promising monolithic returns. As portion of the scheme, Osang allegedly received 19.806 bitcoin (valued astatine astir $1.08 cardinal astatine the time) via a Binance wallet. Osang pleaded not blameworthy to each charges.
Following the plea, authoritative Christopher Mshelia requested a proceedings day and asked that the suspect stay successful custody, portion defence counsel K.I. Shuaibu applied for bail. Justice Egwuatu ordered Osang remanded astatine the Kuje Correctional Centre and scheduled a bail proceeding for July 14, 2026.
While the high-profile arraignment is being viewed arsenic a measurement toward altering the cognition that Nigeria is indifferent to planetary cybercrime victims, Rume Ophi, Lead of Programs and Communication astatine VASPA, pushed backmost against the country’s estimation arsenic a cybercrime hub.
“That communicative is mostly an amplified cognition that does not bespeak the world of the country’s efforts to combat fiscal crime,” Ophi told Bitcoin.com News.
Ophi suggested that overseas nationals are often the existent masterminds down these operations, recruiting locals to execute them. While acknowledging that much tin beryllium done, Ophi emphasized that Nigerian authorities merit recognition for their enforcement efforts and urged the nationalist to promptly study crypto-related scams.
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