The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission [EFCC] has said the five watches discovered with suspected cybercriminal and money launderer, Ismaila Mustapha a.k.a Mompha, is worth N60m and not the N20m earlier reported.
The EFCC while confirming Mompha’s arrest on 22 October 2019 had valued the watches at $56,000 [about N20m]. The antigraft agency did not state the brands of the watches.
However, after the agency arrested an alleged collaborator of Mompha’s, Hamza Koudieh, a Lebanese of his N1.8bn per annum suite in Eko Pearl Towers, the commission reviewed the value of the watches to N60m, about $166,000.
The EFCC said Koudeih was arrested after a three-hour stand-off at his luxury apartment in the 33-storey Eko Atlantic Pearl Tower, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Mompha, Koudeih and the others are suspected to be kingpins of a network of cyber criminals who laundered N33bn through three firms.
WuzupNigeria reports that this is not the first time Koudeih would be linked to fraud. In 2012, the Lebanese was arraigned for allegedly stealing $409,780 from two Nigerians.
Koudeih was arraigned before a Chief Magistrate’s Court, Tinubu Square, Lagos, on two separate charges, which he pleaded not guilty to. One of the charges involves the stealing of $329,780 (N51.4m) from Alhaji Isa Hassan in January 2011 and the other involves the theft of $80,000 (N12. 5m) from Stanley Eze on March 23, 2012.
