A Federal High Court in Lagos has sentenced Courage Ipaka to two years in prison for scamming a United States citizen, Mrs. Yvelte Thompson, of $53,000 by pretending to be Nigerian musician Chinedu Okoli, known as Flavour N’abania.
Justice Dehinde Dipeolu found Ipaka guilty after he admitted to a two-count charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
During the trial, EFCC’s prosecution counsel, Suleiman Suleiman, presented evidence with the help of EFCC investigator Azibagiri Ekpar. Ekpar explained that Ipaka impersonated Flavour by promising to organize shows in the United States and receiving payments through his Bitcoin wallets.
Ekpar said, “We invited Flavour, who honoured the invitation and claimed innocence of the allegations. Upon investigation, we discovered that one Ipaka Courage, who lives in Benin City, Edo State, was the perpetrator.”
“We invited the defendant, and he admitted in his statement that he impersonated Flavour by obtaining the sum of $53,000 from a woman, who is a United States citizen in 2021,” Ekpar added.
Ipaka transferred the funds through Bitcoin wallets and converted them to Naira in his Access Bank account. “The sum of N7.9 million was recovered from the defendant through Zenith and Access Bank manager’s cheques,” Ekpar noted.
After reviewing the evidence, Justice Dipeolu sentenced Ipaka to two years imprisonment, but with an option to pay a fine of N2 million. The judge also ordered that the sum of N7.9 million be forfeited to Mrs. Thompson.
