Nigerian Fraudster Scams $1m from Prison Cell

A convicted internet fraudster currently serving a 24-year sentence inside one of Nigeria’s maximum-security prisons has been found to have committed a “mega scam” from inside his cell.

Hope Olusegun Aroke used a “network of accomplices” to perpetrate the scam, according to anti-corruption officials.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said it had intelligence relating to Aroke’s scam, but was then faced with the “riddle” of how he was able to “continue to ply his ignoble trade” from inside his cell.

A preliminary investigation then found he still had access to the internet.

First arrested in 2012 when he was still a student in Malaysia, Aroke was, according to the EFCC, the “arrowhead of an intricate web of internet fraud schemes that traverse two continents”.

He used fictitious names to open two banks accounts whilst in prison, using them to buy luxury homes and a car, as well as being “in possession of his wife’s bank account token in prison, which he used to freely transfer funds”.

It is believed he bribed prison officials to give him access to the internet and his phone.