£1m Fraud: Nigerian ‘Yahoo Boys’ Jailed In UK

Two members of a Nigerian organised crime group who committed more than £1m worth of fraud and money laundering after staging a mass phishing con have been jailed after a National Crime Agency investigation.

According to the UK National Crime Agency, Emmanuel Mmaduike and Olawale Kashimawo, both 31, obtained thousands of business email addresses and passwords which they used to divert payments from companies to themselves.

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They were said to have spent the money on a lavish lifestyle – hiring a helicopter, driving flash cars – and regularly posed for photographs of themselves with wads of money, expensive watches and drinking champagne.

Confiscation orders are being pursued against both men.

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Known as business email compromise (BEC), the operation involves the criminal impersonation of a senior executive and attempting to convince the victim to transfer funds.

Mmaduike was said to have played the role of accessing the victim’s email accounts and change invoices so that payments were directed to mule bank accounts run by Kashimawo.

His collaborator then laundered the cash by arranging withdrawals and international bank transfers which were carried out by other fraudsters.

The pair are believed to have carried out more than £1m of fraud and money laundering between April 2015 and November 2015, according to the NCA.

Mmaduike was jailed in March 2017 for six years and 10 months after he admitted money laundering and fraud.

He also admitted perverting the course of justice in relation to a sham marriage to a Dutch national.

On May 17, 2018, at Kingston Crown Court, Kashimawo was also jailed for six years and nine months after admitting two counts of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In the same vein, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested over 12 suspected internet fraudsters popularly known as ‘Yahoo Boys’ during a raid at Club 57 in the Ikoyi area of Lagos earlier this month.

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Six Journalists Sentenced To Life Imprisonment Over Failed Coup

A court in Istanbul on Friday sentenced six Turkish journalists to aggravated life imprisonment each over their alleged involvement in a failed coup in July 2016, local media reported.

The defendants, including Turkey’s well-known journalists Nazli Ilicak, Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan, were charged with trying to remove the constitutional order, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey believes that the coup attempt, in which 250 people were killed, was orchestrated by the network led by the U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen.

No fewer than 150,000 officials and officers have been dismissed or suspended from their posts while over 55,000 others arrested in the ongoing investigation and crackdown.

(Xinhua/NAN)

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Cyril Ramaphosa elected President of South Africa

Cyril Ramaphosa.  (Photo by Michelly Rall/Getty Images for TIME/FORTUNE/CNN)

Cyril Ramaphosa has been elected President of South Africa hours after former president Jacob Zuma was forced to resign, Guardian reports.

Ramaphosa has been the leader of the African National Congress (ANC) since December, and became interim president upon Zuma’s resignation.

Ramaphosa won an election that was basically a formality, as the ANC already has majority seats in the South African Parliament.

Ramaphosa has been sworn-in in Cape Town.

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Goodbye To Romance! Couples Detained As Indonesian Cities Ban Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day was banned in some Indonesian cities Wednesday as police rounded up amorous couples, giving the official kiss-off to a tradition which critics say doesn’t deserve any love in the Muslim-majority nation.

The prohibitions come amid concerns that traditionally tolerant Indonesia is taking a sharp fundamentalist turn, by pushing to make pre-marital sex — including gay sex — illegal and punishable with jail time.

On Wednesday authorities in the country’s second-biggest city Surabaya briefly detained about two dozen couples during a raid to sniff out any sign of Valentine’s Day celebrations. They were expected to be released with a reprimand.

Mataram city on the tourist island of Lombok issued its own Valentine’s Day ban and ordered police to raid schools in the hunt for passionate students unable to keep their hands off each other. Romantic parties at hotels and cafes were left alone, according to authorities.

Syamsu Rizal, the deputy mayor of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, said his city prohibited Valentine’s celebrations, while Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta followed suit.

“It has never been declared by the government to be a celebration in the country” and the ban would prevent hanky-panky among students, Rizal said.

Makassar has imposed bans on Valentine’s Day for the past several years.

In 2017 city authorities raided convenience stores to seize condoms in a bid to stop teenagers from having sex on February 14.

At least 10 cities across the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation issued full or partial bans on Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Aceh province, the only place in Indonesia that imposes Islamic law, issued a fresh Valentine’s prohibition Wednesday, citing religious norms. It has ordered bans in previous years.

“Valentine’s Day reflects a culture which is not in line with Aceh’s and Islamic law,” provincial governor Irwandi Yusuf said in a statement.

Islamic clerics and some pious Muslims use the occasion to criticise what they see as Western decadence.

But many Indonesians practise a moderate form of Islam and celebrate Valentine’s Day with cards, chocolates and flowers for their loved ones.



Source: Straitstimes (AFP/Reuters)

Photo credit: CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN/AFP/Getty Images

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