After his arrest on August 6, 2019 at Dulles, Virginia in the United States of America by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Obinwanne Okeke a.k.a Invictus Obi is again facing another battle as a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered the temporary forfeiture to the Federal Government of the sum of N280,555,010 linked to him.
The ruling by Justice Rilwan Aikawa came after an ex-parte application filed on Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Okeke after the said amount was traced to Okeke in bank accounts of Invictus Oil and Gas Limited and Invictus Investment Limited.
Recall that Okeke, 31, is being accused in the US of conspiring to commit fraud of over $11 million. This was after the youngster was celebrated on the cover page of Forbes Magazine (Africa) as one of the young successful entrepreneurs under age 30 few years back.
The EFCC said in the application that the temporary forfeiture order was necessary to prevent the companies from tampering or dissipating the money which is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities.
Justice Aikawa therefore ordered the interim forfeiture of the funds and asked the commission to publish in any national newspaper, the interim order for the named parties or anyone who is interested in the monies sought to be forfeited to appear before the court to show cause within 14 days why the final order of forfeiture should not be made in favour of the Federal Government.
The court fixed October 30 for further proceedings.