Court remands businessman for ‘impersonating U.S. Attorney-General’

A businessman, Khareem Oluwaseyi, was on Wednesday arraigned by the EFCC for allegedly impersonating the U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to defraud people online. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Oluwaseyi has, however, pleaded not guilty to a five-count charge of possession of fraudulent document before a Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja. The prosecuting counsel for the EFCC, A.M. Ocholi, told the court that Mr Oluwaseyi committed the offences on June 29 in Lagos. “The defendant goes by the alias Jeff Sessions and using the moniker, he had created an e-mail address jeffsessions54@gmail.com. “He had in his possession an e-mail correspondence containing false pretence titled: “Grant Money”, which he sent from that e-mail address to compbellellaine390@gmail.com, the e-mail address of an unsuspecting victim. “Oluwaseyi had in his possession another e-mail correspondence titled: “Grant” which he sent from his Jeff Sessions e-mail address to tomzglamorously@gmail.com which he knew contained false pretence. “He also had sent an e-mail: titled “no subject” which he sent to daphebarney3@gmail.com, knowing same to be false,” Mr Ocholi said. The prosecutor said that in addition to the e-mail correspondences, Mr Oluwaseyi was also allegedly nabbed with a fraudulent document titled: “National Endowment for Humanities”. Mr Ocholi said that the offences contravened Sections 1(3) and 68(b) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006. However, following the plea of the defendant, the judge, Oyindamola Ogala, ordered that Mr Oluwaseyi be remanded in prison. The judge adjourned the case until September 10 for hearing of the bail application of the defendant. (NAN)]]>