A Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted and sentenced seven Chinese nationals to one year imprisonment each for their involvement in cyberterrorism and internet fraud linked to a massive Ponzi scheme uncovered in December 2024.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned the convicts separately before Justices Ayokunle Faji, Chukwujekwu Aneke, and Yellim Bogoro. During the proceedings, EFCC prosecutors Bilkisu Buhari-Bala, Chineye Okezie, and Banjo Temitope informed the court that the defendants had entered plea bargain agreements, filed on June 20, 2025.
All defendants pleaded guilty to the charges and confirmed that they voluntarily consented to the plea bargain. Consequently, the court sentenced each to one year imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₦1,000,000 (One Million Naira).
The court further directed the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to deport the convicts to their home countries within seven days of completing their prison terms.
The convicts — Peng Li Huan, Zhang Jin Rong, He Kun, Rachelle Cabalona, Caselyn Pionela, Guo Long Long, and Zhang Hua Zhai — were arrested during an EFCC raid on a building at Oyin Jolayemi Street, Lagos, where over 700 suspects were apprehended.
The EFCC’s Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 charged the defendants with separate one-count charges related to cyberterrorism and internet fraud.
The amended one-count charge read in court stated that the convicts, in December 2024, “willfully accessed computer systems organized to destabilize and destroy the fundamental economic and social structure of Nigeria by recruiting Nigerian youths to commit identity theft and impersonate foreign nationals for financial gain”.
The offence is contrary to and punishable under Section 18 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended in 2024), and Section 2(3)(d) of the Terrorism (Prevention, Prohibition) Act, 2022.