EFCC arrests lawyer of FBI’s suspect

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it has arrested a lawyer of one of the suspects on the FBI’s wanted lists, who is also wanted for financial crimes in Abuja.
This was revealed by the Abuja zonal head of the EFCC, Aminu Ado Aliyu, at the briefing on the achievements of the Abuja zonal office in 2019 in Abuja yesterday.
Speaking at the function, Aliyu, who did not give the name of the suspect or his lawyer to avoid obstructing the ongoing investigation, said the lawyer was arrested because his client could not be reached after he was granted bail.
According to him, “Intensified efforts in fighting cybercrimes led to our collaboration with the FBI and other international agencies to investigate cases traced to Nigeria.
“This collaboration has also contributed to our successes within this year. We have also been dynamic in our investigations to accommodate the emerging trends in financial crimes such as cryptocurrency, fraud, ponzi scheme, business email compromise, identity theft and so on. In the view of these, our staffs are being trained so as to tackle the crime head on.”
Aliyu further revealed that as part of their success story this year, the zone has secured 42 convictions out of the 74 cases in court.
He also noted that so far in 2019, the EFCC has received a total of 615 petitions, out of which 305 cases are already under investigation and 164 cases are with the legal unit for advise and possible prosecution.
He further stated that the agency has recovered a total sum of N725, 246, 287 ; $49 673 dollars; 2330 euros; and 23,000 pounds.
EFCC also recovered exotic cars which are proceeds of crime as well as laptops and phones that were used as instrument for financial crimes.