ALLEGED MONEY LAUNDERING: COURT ADMITS DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED BY EFCC AS EVIDENCE IN MOMPHA’S CASE
Read Time:2 Minute, 53 Second
By Aishat Momoh. O.
Ismaila Mustapha, alias Mompha’s iPhone, was the subject of an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which claimed it was used for fraudulent activities, according to two documents that were submitted by the EFCC as evidence and accepted by Justice Mojisola Dada of an Ikeja High Court.
Dada acknowledged the documents presented by the EFCC counsel on Monday, which included a letter from the EFCC to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States of America and a report from the Bureau.
Mompha and his firm, Ismalob Global Investment, had previously been charged by the EFCC and appeared before the Ikeja High Court on January 22, 2022.
The EFCC brought an eight-count charge of N6 billion laundering, alongside other offences against Mompha, who is known to be a social media celebrity.
Mompha pleaded not guilty though he was not in court for the hearing.
The defence counsel led by Kolawole Salami objected to the admissibility of the two documents as evidence because they are public documents and from the United States Consulate without certification.
“The documents are not a certified true copy, and should not be admitted in court,” Salami told the Judge.
Dada, however, overruled the defence counsel’s objection and upheld the prosecution who maintained that the FBI documents were original.
“The documents do not require certification,” Dada ruled.
During his cross-examination of the prosecution’s witness, the defence counsel also called for the documents in the Court’s Exhibit for the case labelled P2 and P3 and read from a paragraph which stated that the FBI documents are not to be used in a legal proceeding except after a separate communication has been made.
The witness, Solademi, replied to the defence counsel and said his presence to give testimony in court amounts to a separate communication from the FBI that allows for the use of the documents in court.
The EFCC counsel, Suleiman Suleiman, tendered the two documents following his call up of his witness, Ayotunde Solademi, an FBI representative, to give testimony to the Bureau’s forensic operation.
Solademi, who works at the Legal Attaché office of the FBI in Nigeria told the court that he had retrieved an iPhone belonging to Mompha with a Faraday bag.
Solademi said the FBI’s forensic operations revealed Mompha’s iPhone was used to send account details to a United Arab Emirates (UAE) telephone number, search for Swift Codes of a bank and had a compromised Microsoft 365 account.
“The [Mompha’s] iPhone had a compromised Microsoft 365 account and attackers used a fraudulent domain to socially engineer communication to their [Mompha’s] company,” the FBI representative told the court.
The prosecution witness also told the court that the FBI discovered during analysis that Mompha’s iPhone was also used to change payment delivery from Cheque to wire transfer, after a third attempt.
“The [iPhone] was used to make three attempts to transfer funds. The first two failed, but the third was successful,” Solademi said.
The defence counsel, Salami, during his cross-examination of the witness, established that Solademi was not aware whether the FBI had ever arrested the defendant.
He also established that the FBI forensic analysis of Mompha’s iPhone was commissioned at the request of the EFCC.
Further, Salami argued that the FBI representative could not confirm whether the iPhone he retrieved from the EFCC belonged to the defendant, Mompha, at the point of handover.
Dada adjourned Mompha’s case to November 1, 2023.
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