N100m fraud: Court orders company CEO to forfeit all assets to victim

An Ikeja High Court on Friday ordered a company, Folik International Ventures Limited, to forfeit its assets to another company it had defrauded of N100 million.

Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye, granted the forfeiture order while delivering judgment in a case brought against the company by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

NAN reports that Folik International Ventures Limited and its owner, Folake Kowo, were arraigned on 9 October 2013 for fraud offence.

The EFCC had alleged that the company and Kowo had, between June 2011 and January 2013, in Lagos, sold 200 cartons of frozen fish valued at about N100 million on behalf of Time Unicorn Ltd.

The anti-graft agency alleged that rather than remit the proceeds from the sales to Time Unicorn Ltd., they diverted it to their personal use.

Kowo had pleaded not guilty to the charge and was granted bail in the sum of N50 million, with two sureties each in like sum.

However, after being unable to meet the bail condition, 36-year old Kowo opted for a plea bargain arrangement with the EFCC.

Following the development, EFCC counsel, Mr Emmanuel Jackson, informed the court that she had repaid N70 million to the victim.

Delivering her judgment, Ipaye ordered the forfeiture of 21 cold rooms belonging to Folik International Ventures Limited to Time Unicorn Ltd as restitution.

She also directed that two landed property, situated at Mende, Maryland and Iba in Lagos, owned by Kowo, should be forfeited to the company.

The judge further ordered that Kowo should pay N1 million to the Federal Government within 14 days as cost of her prosecution and warned that she would be sent to jail if she failed to obey the order of the court.