Two Nigerians and their accomplice have been sentenced in the United Kingdom for operating a complex £4m (approximately N7.4bn) cryptocurrency scam that used fake police websites and impersonations of law enforcement officers to defraud victims.
Anthony Ikenwe (29), a Nigerian national; Kevin Nwamma (25), another Nigerian; and Hamza Bashir (23) were sentenced by Southwark Crown Court after being found guilty of fraud and money laundering.
According to the Metropolitan Police, Ikenwe and Nwamma received sentences of six years for fraud and five years for money laundering respectively, while Bashir got three years and nine months for his part in the conspiracy.
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Police said the scammers defrauded at least eight people by pretending to be police officers and then directing them to real looking UK police websites.
The gang falsely informed the victims that their cryptocurrency wallets had been compromised or related to illegal activity and persuaded them to send the funds to wallets they controlled under the pretext of carrying out a ‘security investigation’.
After several victims reported the fraud in January 2025, Metropolitan Police’s cryptocurrency crime unit initiated an investigation.
Using blockchain technology, police traced the movements of the stolen funds through a number of wallets before linking the three suspects and identifying their involvement.
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Financial checks revealed that the money was partially converted to payment cards and assets in a bid to hide criminal activity.
Police said the case highlights the increasing sophistication of crypto-enabled fraud and how scams now rely on imposter attacks on legitimate institutions, with officers reminding investors not to send money to any police- impersonating scammers, nor transfer funds as part of a criminal probe.
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This latest conviction follows extensive efforts by governments and authorities to counter cyber-enabled financial crimes, and this increased co-operation between international law enforcement partners including Nigerian law enforcement to bring down large-scale organised fraud rings has seen successes such as these.
