The Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned one Godslove Munachiso Obiwuru, a 26-year-old Nigerian, over alleged involvement in an international cryptocurrency fraud scheme linked to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Obiwuru was brought before Justice M. T. Segun-Bello of the Federal High Court sitting in Independence Layout, Enugu, on a two-count charge of money laundering.
One of the charges reads: “That you, Godslove Munachiso Obiwuru ‘M’ sometime in 2022 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, retained 0.042 Ethereum (digital currency) equivalent to $50 (Fifty United States Dollars) in a Binance wallet account with the address 0xD62C9DA42BDe76a7Be113ABA225456C57320A569 which you know or reasonably ought to know, is a proceed of an unlawful act and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 20 (a) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”
The defendant pleaded “not guilty” to the charges when read to him in court.
Following his plea, EFCC counsel, A.Y. Abdullahi, an Assistant Superintendent of the Commission, requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendant at a correctional facility. However, defence counsel, Abel Anih, prayed the court for a short adjournment to enable him file a bail application.
Justice Segun-Bello subsequently adjourned the case to a later date for the hearing of the bail application and ordered that the defendant be remanded in EFCC custody.
According to the EFCC, Obiwuru was arrested on August 5, 2025, following a petition from the FBI, which alleged that he was involved in auctioning a compromised cryptocurrency account.
The FBI’s petition revealed that in November 2022, a Coinbase cryptocurrency wallet belonging to a U.S. citizen was breached, resulting in the theft of 90,410.126 Gold Retriever Tokens (GLDN), valued at about $307,394 at the time.
Investigations linked part of the stolen digital assets to a Binance account controlled by the defendant. Further findings by EFCC’s Special Task Force in Enugu indicated that Obiwuru allegedly received cryptocurrency stolen from two separate victims.
The case highlights growing collaboration between the EFCC and international law enforcement agencies in tackling cross-border cybercrime and digital asset fraud.
