Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Money laundering: Why EFCC raided Astrax Autos, seized 29 cars

Juliana Francis
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Lagos office, yesterday seized a total of 29 exotic cars during a raid on the office of a Lagos-based car dealer, Astrax Auto Shop.

Acting Head, Media & Publicity, Tony Orilade said that the raid followed intelligence report received by the Commission on the activities of the operators of the auto shop, who are said to be a syndicate of organized Internet fraudsters.
Orilade added: “Investigation revealed that the syndicate, which specializes in Business Emails Compromise, BEC, in the United States of America, USA, usually moves proceeds of its alleged illicit business to a nominated bank account owned by their mules in the U.S. The syndicate members allegedly laundered the proceeds through money order, which they use to purchase cars in American auctions and ship same to Nigeria for sale.”
The EFCC had earlier arrested one of the syndicate members, Olusegun Michael Adeyemi.
In his statement to the EFCC, Adeyemi confirmed that Tayo Onilogbo Yusuf as the Managing Director of Astrax Autos and Automobile.
The cars recovered from the syndicate include: four Toyota Corolla; seven Toyota Camry; two Toyota Highlander; two Toyota Venza; two  Range Rover; one  Ford SUV; three Mercedes Benz;  one  Toyota 4runner; one Toyota Sienna;  four  Honda Accord;  one Toyota Sequoia and one Kia car.

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