A Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday convicted and sentenced seven Chinese nationals to one year imprisonment each for their involvement in cyberterrorism and internet fraud linked to a large-scale Ponzi scheme uncovered in December 2024.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned the convicts — Peng Li Huan, Zhang Jin Rong, He Kun, Rachelle Cabalona, Caselyn Pionela, Guo Long Long, and Zhang Hua Zhai — before Justices Ayokunle Faji, Chukwujekwu Aneke, and Yellim Bogoro in separate proceedings.
According to the EFCC’s prosecution team comprising Bilkisu Buhari-Bala, Chineye Okezie, and Banjo Temitope, the convicts entered into plea bargain agreements, which were submitted to the court on June 20, 2025.
At the respective arraignments, the defendants pleaded guilty and confirmed to the court that they had willingly entered the plea bargain deals.
Subsequently, the court convicted and sentenced each of the defendants to one year in prison and imposed a fine of N1 million on each individual.
In addition, the court ordered the Nigerian Immigration Service to facilitate their deportation within seven days of completing their prison terms.
The convicted foreign nationals were apprehended in a December 2024 raid by EFCC operatives on a building along Oyin Jolayemi Street in Victoria Island, Lagos, where over 700 suspects linked to a cyber fraud syndicate were arrested.
The EFCC Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 charged the defendants with separate one-count offences bordering on cyberterrorism and internet fraud.
The charge read in court stated that the defendants “willfully accessed computer systems organized to destabilize and destroy the fundamental economic and social structure of Nigeria by recruiting Nigerian youths to commit identity theft and impersonate foreign nationals for financial gain.”
The offences contravene Section 18 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024), and Section 2(3)(d) of the Terrorism (Prevention, Prohibition) Act, 2022.
The EFCC described the convictions as a major milestone in the ongoing war against cross-border cybercrime in Nigeria.
