EFCC ARRAIGNS 26-YEAR-OLD FBI SUSPECT OVER CRYPTOCURRENCY ACCOUNT TAKEOVER IN ENUGU
Read Time:1 Minute, 22 Second
By Aishat Momoh. Om
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a 26-year-old man, Godslove Munachiso Obiwuru, identified as a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspect, before Justice M. T. Segun-Bello of the Federal High Court, Enugu, over alleged cryptocurrency account takeover and money laundering.
Obiwuru was docked on a two-count charge bordering on money laundering after investigations linked him to a scheme involving the theft of digital assets from U.S. citizens. One of the charges stated that he retained 0.042 Ethereum, valued at $50, in a Binance wallet suspected to be proceeds of crime, contrary to Section 20(a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Following his plea, EFCC counsel, A.Y. Abdullahi, urged the court to fix a trial date and remand the defendant in custody. Defence counsel, Abel Anih, however, requested time to file a bail application. The judge adjourned the matter for hearing of the bail application and ordered that the defendant remain in EFCC custody.
Obiwuru was arrested on August 5, 2025, after a petition from the FBI alleged his involvement in auctioning compromised cryptocurrency accounts. The petition revealed that in November 2022, a Coinbase account belonging to a U.S. citizen was hacked, leading to the theft of 90,410.126 Gold Retriever Tokens (GLDN), valued at about $307,394 at the time.
The FBI’s findings indicated that part of the stolen funds was traced to a Binance account linked to Obiwuru. Further EFCC investigations also suggested he received cryptocurrency allegedly stolen from two different victims.
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0