The Federal High Court of Nigeria convicted nine Chinese nationals on Thursday and sentenced them each to a year in prison for their roles in a cybercrime syndicate that allegedly involved training and recruiting young Nigerians to commit online fraud.
Law enforcement officers from Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the gang in December, alongside 780 other people in a large raid at a commercial premises in Lagos.
The raid, part of what the EFCC named Operation Eagle Flush, saw the agency arrest 599 Nigerians and 193 other foreign nationals, many of them Chinese, on suspicion of being involved in a range of online crimes and frauds.
According to local media reports, the EFCC said the nine Chinese nationals convicted on Thursday had been part of a “large-scale cyberterrorism and identity theft operation” and had involved the convicts illicitly accessing computer systems.
This Day, a Nigerian newspaper, cited an affidavit by EFCC investigator Kaina Garba describing Operation Eagle Flush as designed to tackle “a syndicate, primarily led by Chinese nationals, that recruits and trains Nigerian youths in cyber-fraud, including dating, romance, and investment scams.”
According to the EFCC, the culprits are part of an international cybercrime syndicate headquartered in Lagos using “advanced technology and social engineering techniques to defraud individuals and institutions globally.”
One of the Nigerian witnesses called to give testimony in connection with the Operation Eagle Flush prosecutions explained how she was recruited via WhatsApp and quickly hired and provided with accommodation.
She said she was paid ₦250,000 per month (about $160) which is an above-average salary in Lagos, but had tried to resign and been prevented from doing so. “We were always escorted by security officials from the office to the accommodation and we were never allowed to leave the office premises. Before we start working for the day, we have to submit our phones. The EFCC arrest was a saving grace for me,” she said.
Alongside the nine convicted on Thursday, dozens of Chinese nationals have been arraigned as a result of the raid and accused of having “procured/employed Nigerian youths for identity theft and to hold themselves out as persons of foreign nationality, with the intent to gain financial advantage for yourselves.”
The nine defendants — Xiang Hui, Hai Rong, Liu Gang, Ji Geng, Li Dong, Huang Bo, Xhiong Zhen, Lai Feng and Deng Qiang — were convicted after reaching a plea deal with the EFCC and will be deported after they have completed their prison terms. They were each fined ₦1,000,000 ($640).
China’s ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, had previously expressed regret about the arrests — noting that “as a country that has a big population, there are always some bad apples” — and asked the Nigerian authorities to respect the rights of the dozens of Chinese citizens arrested on suspicion of committing digital crimes — as well as others accused of attempting to illegally export a range of minerals from Nigeria, including copper and lithium.
Ambassador Dunhai proposed sending a working group to Nigeria to work with the country’s law enforcement agencies to investigate cybercrime perpetrated by Chinese nationals. “I can assure you […] that we have zero tolerance for this kind of crime. The Chinese government has always been committed to countering cybercrime and telecom frauds,” stated Dunhai.
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