Lagos court jails six Chinese for internet fraud

Lagos court jails six Chinese for Internet fraud

Justice Justice D. I. Dipeolu and Justice A. O. Faji of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has convicted and sentenced six Chinese to one year imprisonment each for cyber-terrorism and internet fraud.

The convicts are: JIA You (a.k.a A. You), Wang Zheng Feng (a.k.a.Feng), Liu San Hua, Chen Wen yuan, LIU BEIXING, and WEN ZONG XU (a.k.a.LI LONG).

They are among the syndicate of 792 alleged cryptocurrency investment and romance fraud suspects arrested on December 19, 2024 in Lagos during a sting operation tagged “Eagle Flush Operation” conducted by EFCC operatives.

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They were subsequently arraigned on separate count charges of cyber- terrorism and internet fraud in February, 2025 by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, EFCC.

One of the charge reads: “That you LUO JIA YOU (a.k.a A. YOU) sometimes in December 2024 at Lagos, Nigeria within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, willfully caused to be accessed, computer systems used for the purpose of destabilizing and destroying the economy and social structure of Nigeria and you hereby 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) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition Act, 2022″.

They initially pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when they were read to them.

However, during the sitting on Monday, June 23, 2025, they changed their “not guilty plea” to “guilty.”

In view of their pleas, the prosecution counsel, Babatunde Sonoiki, U. S. Kyari and B. M. Isah, respectively, prayed the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.

Consequently, court convicted and sentenced each of the defendants to one year imprisonment starting from the date of arrest on December 10, 2025, with a fine in the sum of N1,000,000 (One Million Naira (N1,000,000.00) each.

The judge further ordered that upon completion of their prison sentence, the Comptroller General of Immigration should ensure that they are repatriated to their country of origin within seven days.

The mobile phones, computers, laptops and routers seized from them at the time of arrest were ordered forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.