A man identified as Courage Ikpaka who impersonated highlife maestro Flavour and defrauded a US woman of $53,000 will spend two years in jail.
Mr. Ikpaka was sentenced by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos Wednesday after being found guilty of using Flavour‘s identity to deceive Yvelte M. Thompson, a U.S. citizen. He had conned the woman into believing that he would organise concerts in the U.S. and she advanced payments through Bitcoin wallets.
Economic and Financial Crimes Commision investigator Azibagiri Dan Ekpar, disclosed that the fraud came to the fore after Ms Thomson filed a complaint through Eyitayo Tolulope Abiodun.
“Upon receiving the petition, we invited Flavour, who was found to be innocent of the allegations,” Ekpar explained.
“Our investigation revealed that Ipaka had impersonated Flavour to obtain $53,000 from Thompson in 2021. He transferred the funds through Bitcoin wallets and later converted them into Nigerian Naira, which was deposited into his Access Bank account.”
The EFCC successfully recovered N7.9 million from Ipaka, which was traced through Zenith and Access Bank manager’s cheques.
Presiding Judge Dehinde Dipeolu sentenced Ipaka to two years imprisonment with an option of a N2 million fine. In addition, Ipaka has been ordered to forfeit the recovered sum of N7.9 million to Thompson.
