Justice Daniel Osiagor of the Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced two Chinese nationals and directors of Genting International Co. Limited, Huang Haoyu, also known as Ken, and An Hongxu, to a cumulative 46 years’ imprisonment each, or an option of a N56 million fine, over a multi-billion-naira cybercrime and money laundering scheme.

The court also ordered the convicts to undertake three days of community service and directed that they be repatriated to their country of origin after serving their sentences and completing the community service.

The two were among 792 suspected internet and cryptocurrency fraud suspects arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Lagos in December 2024.

The second defendant, Audu Friday, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges and will face trial.

At the resumed trial on Wednesday, counsel to both directors, Bridget Omateno, informed the court that they had decided to change their pleas from not guilty to guilty.

When the charges were re-read by the registrar, Huang Haoyu and An Hongxu pleaded guilty to the seven-count charge filed against them, while Audu Friday maintained his plea of not guilty.

Prosecution counsel Bilkisu Buhari – Bala Urged the court to convict the two men in view of their admission. She noted that the prosecution had earlier called two witnesses before the change of plea.

Following her application, Justice Osiagor convicted Huang Haoyu and An Hongxu and sentenced them.

The court also ordered the forfeiture of extensive assets recovered during the investigation from multiple locations in Victoria Island and Ikoyi to the Federal Government.

The items include 1,596 mobile phones, 2,120 office chairs, 544 office tables, 194 routers, 43 computer systems, a network server, 126 air-conditioning units, several generators and vehicles, hundreds of mattresses and bunk beds, thousands of SIM cards across different networks, and numerous other electronic devices and household items.

According to the charge, the defendants were accused of conspiring in 2024 to wilfully access computer systems organised to seriously destabilise the economic and social structure of Nigeria by procuring and employing Nigerian youths to falsely represent themselves as foreign nationals for financial gain, contrary to the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, as amended in 2024.

They were also accused of procuring individuals to retain $1,262,000 USDT in a Binance wallet and $1,300,203 USDT in a Bybit wallet, sums they reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful activity, namely fraud, contrary to the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

The charge also alleged that between August and December 2024, they retained N3,407,824,740.78 in Genting International Co. Limited’s Union Bank account, funds believed to be proceeds of fraud.

They were also said to have transferred N913,922,740.29 to an account belonging to Duliang Pan, who is currently at large, and N106,950,000 to Lagos Oriental Hotel Limited.

Separate counts against Audu Friday and the company alleged unlawful foreign exchange transactions running into billions of naira, contrary to the Foreign Exchange Monitoring and Miscellaneous (Provisions) Act, as well as failure to submit required declarations to the Special Control Unit Against Money Laundering.