Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos has sentenced two Chinese nationals and directors of Genting International Co. Limited, Huang Haoyu (aka Ken) and An Hongxu, to 46 years each, or an option of N56 million fine, for their roles in a multi-billion-naira cybercrime and money laundering scheme.
The court also ordered the convicts to perform three days of community service and directed their repatriation to China after serving their sentences. They were among 792 suspects arrested by the EFCC in Lagos in December 2024.
During the resumed trial, the defendants changed their pleas from not guilty to guilty, while co-defendant Audu Friday maintained his not-guilty plea and will face trial separately.
The court ordered the forfeiture of extensive assets recovered from Victoria Island and Ikoyi, including 1,596 mobile phones, 2,120 office chairs, 544 office tables, 194 routers, 43 computers, a network server, 126 air conditioners, several generators and vehicles, hundreds of mattresses and bunk beds, and thousands of SIM cards.
According to the charges, between August and December 2024, the defendants conspired to access computer systems to destabilize Nigeria’s social and economic structure by employing Nigerian youths to impersonate foreign nationals for financial gain, contrary to the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, as amended in 2024.
They were also accused of retaining $1,262,000 USDT in a Binance wallet and $1,300,203 USDT in a Bybit wallet, sums suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activity, contrary to the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Additionally, the defendants retained N3,407,824,740.78 in Genting International’s Union Bank account, transferred N913,922,740.29 to Duliang Pan, who is currently at large, and N106,950,000 to Lagos Oriental Hotel Limited.
Separate counts against Audu Friday and the company involve unlawful foreign exchange transactions running into billions of naira and failure to submit required declarations to the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering.
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