The federal high court in Lagos has sentenced 18 foreign nationals to one-year imprisonment over cyber-terrorism and internet-related fraud.
The convicts — 15 Chinese, two Filipinos, and one Pakistani — were convicted and sentenced by Chukwujekwu Aneke, Ayokunle Faji, and Yellim Bogoro, judges of the federal high court.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the convicts on separate charges bordering on cyber-terrorism and internet fraud.
“That you, Caselyn Pionela, sometime in December 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, willfully caused to be accessed, computer systems organized to seriously destabilize and destroy the fundamental economic and social structure of Nigeria when you procured/employed Nigerian youths for identity theft and to hold themselves out as persons of foreign nationality, with the intent to gain financial advantage for yourselves and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 18 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As amended 2024) and Section 2(3)(d) of the Terrorism (Prevention, Prohibition) Act, 2022,” the part of the charge sheet reads.
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The foreigners are Peng Li Huan, Zhang Jin Rong, He Kun, Rachelle Cabalona, Caselyn Pionela, Guo Long Long, Zhang Hua Zhai, Lin Hao Bo, Chen Fusheng, Chen Dong Dong, Wang Gong Lin, Pan Cai Yu, Huang Ren Jian, Zhang Xiao Lei, Khurram Shahzad, Chen Yuan, Wu Yong An and Chen Xin.
They all pleaded guilty to the charges, following which the prosecution counsel — Spiff Owede, Bilkisu Buhari-Bala, Chinenye Okezie, Ebuka Okongwu, B.M. Isah and Nambam Mutfwang — prayed the court to convict them.
The prosecution counsel also asked for the forfeiture of all the exhibits recovered from them to the federal government.
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According to a statement released by the EFCC on Friday, the judges found them guilty of the charges and convicted them accordingly with a fine of N1,000,000 each.
The court also directed the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to repatriate the foreigners to their country of origin within seven days after completing the jail term.
The foreigners were among the 792 suspects arrested in Lagos by the EFCC operatives in December 2024.
The arrest was the largest single-day operation against cryptocurrency and romance scam networks by the anti-corruption agency.
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