The Nigeria Police Force has announced the arrest of one Wilfred Bonse as one of the suspects connected to the February 2022 breach of crypto exchange Patricia which led to a $2 million loss.
This announcement was made in a press briefing by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi on Friday. The officer made the announcement in a footage and caption posted on the NPF official Instagram page.
Background check by Technext shows that Wilfred Bonse was a gubernatorial candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in Cross River state, during the March 2023 election. Also, Peoples Gazette earlier reported in February that Wilfred Bonse was accused of benefiting at least N40 million from a cyber fraud scheme executed by a group of hackers identified as The Syndicate.
According to the NPF statement, Wilfred Bonse conspired to launder Fifty Million Naira (N50,000,000) originating from the fraudulent diversion of Six Hundred and Seven Million Naira (N607,000,000:00k) from Patricia Technology company’s account to his bank account through a cryptocurrency wallet.
Although other culprits and details surrounding this have not been released yet, the force assures the public that all individuals involved in the criminal conspiracy will be brought to justice.
A backstory
Patricia, as well as its customers, have endured a difficult time for most of 2023. Patricia ran into trouble following a breach in its security sometime last year. But it remained a well-kept secret until May of this year when Technext reported the breach. The crypto exchange lost N2 billion in the process.
In a bid to salvage the situation, the company first resorted to converting the loss to debt tokens. This was greeted with huge backlash as many users refused the measure. When this failed, the company decided to convert the debts into equity, granting the customers ownership of the company.
Hanu Fejiro confirmed to Technext that the move is an integral component of the company’s strategy for fundraising and a bid to reorganise its debts. He also said the idea was put forward by ‘numerous users’ and that it was not mandatory.
Recently, the CEO in a private conversation with Technext said customers’ withdrawals will start on November 20, last Monday.
However, Techpoint Africa reported on Tuesday that despite the fact that Patricia assured customers that the repayment was scheduled for November 20, many customers in a WhatsApp group chat lamented the inability to withdraw their funds from the platform except a single customer who was able to withdraw their Ethereum (ETH) asset as naira to a bank account.
Read also: Patricia customers lament company’s failure to commence payment on November 20 as promised
What is next after Wilfred Bonse’s arrest?
The NPF said its painstaking efforts led to this arrest but customers would be eager to know what the next update is.
In a private conversation with Technext, Hanu Fejiro says Wilfred Bonse is one of the kingpins in the hack.
“The hackers used politicians to launder the stolen money, all of whom would be brought to the book. There are current members of high political office yet to be announced.” – Hanu said.
According to the CEO, his team is currently proceeding to the court, with the hope of recovering as much funds as they can.
“We wait on recovering and once it happens, the police would make that announcement and that would go towards repaying the lost funds,” Hanu added.
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