Court jails ‘Yahoo Boy’ for impersonating Flavour N’abania, defrauding US lady

Yesterday, a Federal High Court in Lagos sentenced Courage Ipaka to two years in prison for defrauding Mrs. Yvelte Thompson, a citizen of the United States, of $53,000 by pretending to be the Nigerian musician Chinedu Okoli, better known as Flavour N’abania.

Ipaka entered a guilty plea to two counts filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, and was found guilty by Justice Dehinde Dipeolu.

Azibagiri Ekpar, an investigator for the EFCC, was earlier led by prosecution attorney Suleiman Suleiman in evidence against the defendant.

The witness told the court that Ipaka impersonated Flavour by pledging to organise shows in the United States of America and receiving payment through his Bitcoin wallets.

Ekpar explained that the EFCC got wind of the fraud, following a petition by one Eyitayo Abiodun and others on behalf of the victim.

He said: “We invited Flavour, who honoured the invitation and claimed innocence of the allegations. Upon investigation, we discovered that one Ipaka Courage, who lives in Benin City, Edo State, was the perpetrator.

“We invited the defendant, and he admitted in his statement that he impersonated Flavour by obtaining the sum of $53,000 from a woman, who is a United States citizen in 2021.”

“He wired the funds through Bitcoin wallets and converted them in his Access Bank account where he received the value in Naira.

“The sum of N7.9million was recovered from the defendant through Zenith and Access Bank manager’s cheques.”

Following the defendant’s guilty plea and upon reviewing the prosecution’s evidence against him, Justice Dipeolu sentenced Ipaka to two years imprisonment but with an option of a fine of N2 million.

The judge also forfeited the sum of N7.9million to Mrs Thompson.