Money Laundering: Court Jails Five for Illegal Foreign Exchange Transactions

Sunmonu Olasunkanmi Thaoban has been convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for money laundering by the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos Zonal Directorate 1, on Tuesday, October 3, 2023, arraigned Sunmonu on a two-count charge of money laundering.

The defendant pleaded guilty to the two charges.

The prosecution counsel H. U. Kofarnaisa after the guilty plea of the accused, went through the facts of the case and prayed the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.

Justice Akintayo Aluko, the presiding judge, found Sunmonu guilty and sentenced him to four years’ imprisonment or a fine of N1.8 million.

The court also ordered that the convict’s black G-Wagon Jeep and mobile phone be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

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In other developments, the court also convicted and sentenced four Bureau de Change (BDC) operators to 12 months imprisonment each for engaging in illegal foreign exchange transactions.

The convicts, Umar Muhammad Lamido, Yusuf Musa Yusuf, Abdulmuhimin Mahmud and Muhammed Musa were prosecuted by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ikoyi on separate one-count charge bordering on illegal foreign exchange operations.

The defendants pleaded guilty to their individual charges.

Thereafter, the accused pleaded guilty to the offence and the prosecution counsel H. U. Kofarnaisa narrated the facts of the cases and prayed the court to convict and sentence them accordingly.

Justice Aluko found all the four defendants guilty and sentenced each of them to 12 months in jail or a fine of N100,000.