N35bn discovered in Mompha’s accounts, witness tells court

The sixth prosecution witness, Idi Musa, on Monday, testified before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, revealing that N35bn was found in two bank accounts linked to Ismaila Mustapha (a.k.a. Mompha).

Mompha, along with his company Ismalob Global Investment Limited, was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on January 12, 2022.

They faced an eight-count that included conspiracy to launder funds obtained through unlawful activity, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, failure to disclose assets and property, possession of documents containing false pretences, and use of property derived from unlawful acts.

One of the counts read, “Ismaila Mustapha, Ahmadu Mohammed (at large) and Ismalob Global Investment Limited, sometime in 2016, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to conduct financial transactions to the tune of N5,998,884,653.18 with the intent of promoting the carrying on of specified unlawful activities to wit: obtaining by false pretence.”

Mompha pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.
On September 22, 2022, Justice Dada ordered that Mompha’s trial would continue in absentia after he jumped bail.

During Monday’s proceedings, Musa, an EFCC investigator, was led in evidence by the prosecution counsel S. I. Suleiman, recounted his involvement in the investigations.

He explained how the EFCC received intelligence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicating that Mompha and his company were involved in cybercrime in the United States.

“Sometime in 2019, we received intelligence from the FBI, USA. The letter was addressed to the commission, informing us that the first and second defendants were involved in cybercrime, otherwise known as Yahoo Yahoo,” Musa testified.

During the investigation, letters were sent to two major banks requesting the account statements of the second defendant linked to Mompha. Musa revealed,

“The account statements were received and analysed. During the analysis, we discovered a heavy flow of N30bn through the account of the first defendant (Mompha) in one of the banks and about N5bn in another bank account.”

Further correspondence with the FBI, the Special Fraud Unit, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and other relevant agencies was conducted in light of these findings.

The investigation also revealed that Mompha did not reside in Nigeria, complicating efforts to reach him. Musa recounted, “A letter was written to the Nigeria Immigration Services on October 16, 2019, to arrest the defendant anytime he was seen in the country.”

“On October 18, 2019, the first defendant got information that the commission was looking for him while he was in Nigeria. So, he quickly got to the airport and boarded a flight in order to jet out of the country to evade arrest. The team got the information through the NIS officers at the airport. By then, Mompha had already boarded the flight. So, they had to call him to come down, and he was immediately arrested. He was subsequently handed over to the EFCC by the immigration officers.”

Regarding the defendant’s bank account, Musa stated that over N30bn was discovered.

He said, “He told us that he was into the Bureau De Change business. But investigation showed that he was not. We have already concluded investigations in that regard. The offences border on money laundering, operating BDC without a licence before a Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.”

Additionally, Musa testified that an FBI forensic analysis report revealed that Mompha’s iPhone was used to send account details to a United Arab Emirates telephone number and search for Swift Codes of a bank.

“Upon his arrest, all the properties recovered from him were registered with the Exhibits Section in the EFCC office,” Musa concluded.