The Economic and financial crimes commission (EFCC), Lagos Zonal Office, has said that a convicted internet fraudster, Hope Olusegun Aroke, who is serving a 24-year jail term at the Kirikiri correctional centre in Lagos is still coordinating fraudulent activities, even while in prison.
According to the commission, Aroke is the alleged mastermind of a mega scam worth over $100,000, 000.
He is said to have been operating from the prison “using a network of accomplices, some of them, targets of fraud and money laundering investigation.”
The commission said, “preliminary investigation revealed that the convict, against established standard practice, had access to internet and mobile phone in the Correctional Centre where he is supposed to be serving his jail term.
It also said that “Aroke got himself admitted to the Nigeria Police Hospital, Falomo, Lagos for an undisclosed ailment. And from the hospital, he would move out to lodge in hotels, meet with his wife and two children and attend other social functions.
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“The circumstance of his admission into the hospital and those who aided his movement from the hospital to hotels and other social engagements is already being investigated by the EFCC.
“For a felon supposedly serving a jail term, investigation revealed that Aroke used a fictitious name, Akinwunmi Sorinmade, to open two accounts with First Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. He also bought a property at Fountain Spring Estate, Lekki Lagos in 2018 for N22million and a Lexus RX 350 2018 model registered in his wife’s name, Maria Jennifer Aroke.”
The commission also said that Aroke was in possession of his wife’s bank account token in prison, which he used freely to transfer funds.
Further investigations by EFCC also revealed that, while Aroke was facing trial in 2015, he bought a four-bedroom duplex at Plot 12, Deji Fadoju Street, Megamounds Estate Lekki County Homes, Lekki for N48million.
Aroke was one of two Malaysia-based Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters arrested by the EFCC in the closing weeks of 2012 at the 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos following a tip-off. The indigene of Okene, Kogi State had claimed to be a student of Computer Science at the Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University, Malaysia. But the Commission’s investigation fingered him as the arrowhead of an intricate web of internet fraud scheme that traverses two continents.
