The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday made an order for final forfeiture of the sum of 163, 592 dollars domiciled in the United Bank for Africa (UBA) but linked to a Nigerian, Akpasi Michael Oziegbe and his company, Micoz Bluelink Enterprise.
Justice Musa Liman, in a ruling, held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had sufficiently proved that the money was proceed of unlawful activities.
The fund is said to originally belong to a United State (US) law firm, Steven Mandel & Co.
Justice Liman had, on Aug. 15, 2025, granted an order of interim forfeiture of the funds and ordered interested persons to show cause while the money should not be permanently forfeirted to the Law Firm of Steven Mandel & Co. through the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The EFCC, through its team of lawyers led by Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, had filed the motion ex-parte dated April 2, 2025 and marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/611/2025.
According to the anti-graft agency, it received a petition written by the same Mr. Oziegbe against UBA plc for placing a lien on his corporate account with the bank.
Following the receipt of the petition, the commission commenced investigation which revealed amongst other things that:
“On June 27, 2022, the lawfirm of Steve J. Mandel in the U.S received a request for legal representation from a purported ‘Edward Campbell’ on the guise that he was looking to enforce a settlement agreement that he had entered into with his former employer, APPLIED INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGIES.
“‘Edward Campbell’ informed the law firm of Steve J Mandel that he had entered into a settlement agreement for employer’s negligence with his alleged former employer but they had failed to isssue payment to him.
“The law firm of Steve J Mandel reached out to the said employer, Applied Industries Technologies and eventutally secured the payment of the sum of $165,157.
“The lawfirm of Steve J. Mandel informed ‘Edward Campbell’ that they had received a cheque on his behalf from his alleged former employer, Applied Industrial Technologies.
“”Edward Campbell” instructed the law firm to deduct their legal fees and wire the remaining funds to the account provided.
“Consequently, the petitioner’s corporate acccount Microz blue link Enterprise with account number 300354588 in UBA Plc received an inflow of the sum of $163, 592.00 on the 20th of July, 2022 from the law firm of Steve J. Mandel.
“UBA Plc flagged the inflow on the ground that the transaction was fraudulent and initiated a reconfirmation request to the correspondent bank, CITI Bank, to ascertain the genuineness of the said inflow in line with the Bank’s due diligence policy.
“Citibank then sent a swift call back message to UBA plc on the ground that the transfer was fraudulent and also attached a further message from JP Morgan Chase Bank requesting for a refund because the transfer related to “unjust enrichment”.
” The EFCC invited the peitioner through his lawyer to report but he refused to honour the invitation.
“Instead, the petitioner got an earlier freezing order on his account which was granted by Hon. Justice Emeka Nwite pending the conclusion of investigation vacated through his counsel.
“The Judge had vacated the said order as the EFCC was yet to conclude investigation as well as get Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s authorization to use the findings of the Bureau’s investigation in the court’s proceedings.
“After getting the nod of the FBI to use the outcome of its investigation in the United States of America in judicial proceedings, the EFCC filed a fresh action civil forfeiture action under Section 17 of the Advance Fee Fraud Act for the forfeiture of the funds.
“The application was challenged by Mr. Oziegbe through his counsel Chikaosolu Ojukwu, SAN who argued that the suit constituted an abuse of court process in the light of the earlier judgment of Nwite J and urged the court to dismiss it.
“The EFCC on the other hand relying on several judicial authorities argued that the case did not amount to abuse of court proceess since the application before Nwite J was merely a preservatory order made pending the conclusion of investigation; there were fresh facts especially from FBI which were not before Nwite J and that the present action is a civil matter as opposed to the quasi criminal proceedings amongst other submissions.
“In his ruling on the preliminary objection filed on behalf of Mr. Oziiegbe, the presiding Judge, Honourable Justice Liman, consered all the submissions and dismissed the said application as lacking in merit.
“The court also declined to grant the request of UBA which had also prayed the court to also decline jurisdiction or stay proceedings in the matter on account of a separate suit the bank had with the customer.
“Following the dismissal of the preliminary objections, the learned trial Judge heard EFCC’s Motion for final forfeiture as well as the oppositions to it and reserved judgement.”
Delivering the judgment on Friday, Justice Liman held that the EFCC has satisficatorily established that the said sum of $163, 592 represented proceeds of unlawful activities and the respondent, Mr. Oziegbe, failed to show cause why the funds should not be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The trial judge consequently made an order for final forfeiture of the sum of 163, 592 United states dollars to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
