1st April, 2019
Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Monday, arraigned one suspected internet fraudster, Ismail Yusuf before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court 2, Ibadan division.
Yusuf was arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on advance fee fraud, obtaining money by false pretense and sending pornographic images, among others.
The accused had earlier been brought before the court on March 18, 2019, but the commission could not arraign him because he had no legal representation.
According to the charge sheet, Ismail defrauded two American citizens, Steve Harvey and David Beeck, at different times, as he posed to be whom he was not to dispossess them of their money.
One of the counts reads:” That you Ismail Yunus sometime in 2018, at Oyo town, Oyo state, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court with intent to defraud, obtain the sum of $70 USD from Steve Harvey, a United States of American citizen when you falsely represented that you a woman known as Ruby from Dayton Ohio, United States of America, which representation you knew to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to section 1(1)(a) and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.
He pleaded not guilty to the offences.
Consequent upon his ‘not guilty’ plea, the prosecution counsel, Shamsudden Bashir, prayed the court for a trial date and an order to remand him in prison custody, pending the determination of his case.
Pleading for a bail through his counsel, the presiding judge refused an oral bail application brought on his behalf by his lawyer, Okunyemi Tajudeen.
The matter has been adjourned to 14 May, 2019 for trial, while the defendant was remanded in the Agodi prison custody.