A Nigerian suspect, Felix Osilama Okpoh, who is wanted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) for alleged involvement in Internet fraud, has surrendered to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
KanyiDaily recalls that the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had in June 2020, sanctioned six Nigerians for alleged involvement in online scams worth over N2.1 billion ($6 million).
31-year-old Okpoh was indicted for engaging in money laundering, and providing hundreds of over 40 US bank accounts to his conspirators, which were used to receive fraudulent wire transfers from their victims totalling over $1m.
In a statement on Tuesday, September 22, a spokesperson for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, said that Okpoh surrendered himself on September 18, and that investigations into his case had commenced.
Uwujaren quoted Okpoh as saying during interrogation that he decided to surrender himself to the EFCC “out of the respect he had for his parents and his resolve to be morally upright.”
KanyiDaily had reported how the FBI came under heavy fire on social media for using Flex Okpoh and five other Nigerians to publicize an international crime involving more numbers of suspects from other nationality.