Twenty-one years after defrauding a Brazilian bank of $242 million, Emmanuel Nwude has again been sentenced to prison, alongside his lawyers Emmanuel Ilechukwu and Rowland Kalu, for forgery and dealing in forfeited property.
The Special Offences Division of the Lagos High Court in Ikeja, presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada, found the trio guilty on 13 of 15 counts, including forging documents and unlawfully transferring forfeited property at Plot Y, Mobolaji Johnson Street, Oregun, Alausa, Ikeja.
They were each sentenced to one year imprisonment.
The offences, committed between 2011 and 2012, involved attempting to recover and sell a property previously forfeited to the Federal Government under a plea bargain following Nwude’s 2005 conviction for defrauding Banco Noroeste.
Nwude had defrauded the bank between 1995 and 1998 by impersonating Paul Ogwuma, former CBN Governor.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the trio in March 2018 after receiving a petition in July 2017.
During the earlier case, the court had ordered all assets linked to the fraud, including properties and company holdings, be forfeited to the victims and the Federal Government.
Justice Dada’s ruling reinforces accountability measures against attempts to circumvent legal restitution processes.
