Accra, Dec. 5, – An Accra
District Court has remanded two persons charged with 15 counts of conspiracy to
defraud a Real Estate Company with its headquarters in the United Stated of
America.
Some of the charges include
defrauding by false pretense, conspiracy to have access to a protected
computer, conspiracy to unauthorised communication, conspiracy to have an
unauthorized interference with electronic record, unauthorised access to a
computer programme or electronic records among others
The accused persons; Maxwell
Peter, 25 years and Babatunde Martins, a Nigerian pleaded not guilty to all the
charges and were remanded into the
custody of the Economic and Organised
Crime Office(EOCO) to reappear on December 19, for ruling of a bail application
filed by their counsels.
Mr Alidu Mohammed, the counsel
for Maxwell prayed the court to grant bail to his client, since he had been
granted bail in a similar case in Tamale in the sum of GH₵200,000.00 but the accused did not
get the chance to gain his freedom but was transferred to Accra to face another
charge.
“Even though sureties are on
standby to back him, the accused was brought to Accra under the cover of
darkness to face similar charges,” he added.
He said the prosecution has not
demonstrated why Maxwell should be remanded into custody and that he was the
bread winner, a family man.
Mr Charles Bentum, the Counsel
for Babatunde said the accused person was currently undergoing an activity at
the High Court, where he has filed an application challenging his detention
from November 30 to date.
He, also, raised the issue that
the District court had no jurisdiction to hear the case.
The Prosecution led by a State
Attorney objected to the bail applications of the accused, said the charges in
the other courts were two different ones and that the court should not be
misdirected that the cases were the same.
He said the investigations were
confidential and there is a network of individuals mentioned in the case with
some in the United States of America being held on other charges, while others
were on the run, and so if granted bail they would interfere with
investigations.
“We need these accused persons to
assist in investigations,” he added.
He told the court intelligence reports
indicate that there were still correspondence among those at large and if they
were released, it might jeopardise the investigations.
He said the court had
jurisdiction to hear the matter at all cost.
“Babatunde and Maxwell does not
deserve the court’s blessing of a bail,” he said.
He said the email address of all
the 11 accused persons of which some were in detention in the United States of
America and Canada have been analysis and if they were released, the
investigation would be interfered.
The district court however
remanded the accused persons into EOCO custody pending its ruling on the bail
application. She also ordered all parties to file anything they wish to on or
before December 7.
The case has since been adjourned
to December 19.
The prosecution earlier told the
court that intelligence was received by EOCO from the United States that a
group of individuals were involved in Cybercrime, financial crime and money
laundering upon which the two were arrested
The group were said to have
hacked into the email servers of the said company and used their email
addresses and bank accounts to misdirect funds intended for the estate company
by way of computer intrusion as the business email was compromised and also
spoofed the email accounts of the company.
According to the prosecution
between 2007 and 2016, the accused persons and their accomplices created a
bogus email either containing an attachment or a link to a malicious website
which was linked to the said company and infected the company’s email accounts.
He said this malware spread into
the company’s entire computer network and harvested information including
company files, credentials, and gave them access to sensitive company
information.
He said on November 28, Maxwell
was arrested in a different matter but was granted bail by a district court in
Tamale.
He said some of the accused
persons have been arrested in other jurisdictions pending trial while some are
on the run.
Investigations he said revealed
that the accused acting together with a common purpose received US$10,000,000.00
as proceeds from their activities.
GNA
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