Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the final forfeiture of digital assets worth $222,729.86 USDT recovered from Chinese nationals linked to cyber-terrorism and internet fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) disclosed this in a statement on Monday, following the court order delivered on July 21, 2025.
The forfeited assets were recovered from members of a syndicate arrested during a December 10, 2024 raid in Lagos, codenamed the “Eagle Flush Operation.”
According to the EFCC, the suspects,including the Chinese nationals, were part of a group of 792 individuals arrested for alleged cryptocurrency investment scams and online romance fraud.
The commission stated, “Justice Owoeye gave the order, following an ex parte motion filed on July 18, 2025 by the EFCC, through its counsel, Zeenat Atiku.”
While moving the application on Monday, Atiku informed the court that it was backed by an affidavit deposed to by Muazu Abdulrahman, an EFCC investigating officer.
In the affidavit, Abdulrahman stated that the syndicate carried out its operations through a Nigerian-registered company known as Genting International Co. Limited.
“Over the course of its activities, this company’s Union Bank account 0225100403 received a staggering sum of over N2,268,839,161 (Two billion from April 12, 2024, to December 23, 2024.
“An analysis of the company’s bank statement revealed that the primary inflows into the account originated from two cryptocurrency vendors: Chukwuemeka Okeke and Alhassan Aminu Garba.
“Furthermore, Okeke and Garba were invited for questioning and they willingly provided their statements under caution.
“They reported that they received a total USDT valued at $2,386,642 from the syndicates, resulting from USDT purchased through peer-to-peer trading.
“They also identified the wallet addresses utilized by the group for transferring funds (USDTs),” he said.
Atiku submitted that the funds were reasonably suspected to be proceeds of computer-related fraud and money laundering, and urged the court to order their forfeiture to the Federal Government.
In granting the request, Justice Owoeye ruled, “I have read the motion and attachments and found sufficient merit in the application.
“Consequently, the motion succeeds and is hereby granted.”
