It is difficult to forget the years 2010–2012, when songs were written about internet fraudsters, giving them the status of socialites. One significant song that set “HOPE” back was the 2012 popular song “2 Mush,” performed by an Indigenous Nigerian rapper, in which he shouted praises to his “waya waya” supporters. He became well-known throughout the nation among young hustlers thanks to this song.
Who among us could forget these lines from the song? – “H-Money Oracle is a great tool.” (In other words, H-Money, a shrewd magical Oracle with numerous links.) Hope Olusegun Aroke, a Malaysian undergraduate at Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University, was the individual known as H-Money in the song. After being apprehended by the EFCC, he was sentenced to 24 years in prison.
After participating in a transaction that brought him a total of N25,000,000 (four thousand riaait), Hope was apprehended by the anti-corruption agency in 2012. The ruling was presided over by Lagos State High Court Judge Lateefa Okunnu, who was seated in Ikeja.
Hope was charged with two counts of money laundering, wire fraud, forgery, and collecting money under false pretenses when she appeared before Justice Okunnu. He was found guilty of both crimes by the court, and he received a twelve-year prison sentence for each of them. Hope’s problems began when an unidentified petitioner claimed in a letter to the EFCC that the undergraduate from Kogi state had engaged in a number of online fraud schemes. The EFCC leapt into action and looked into Aroke’s online activities.
According to a different narrative, he had an affair with a lawyer’s wife while he was living in Lekki, and the woman later filed a complaint against him with the EFCC. According to investigations, he fell for multiple romantic scams, which cost him 4,000 riaait (Malaysian currency). Aroke acknowledged sending the funds to Nigeria via a woman named Angela, who subsequently assisted him in depositing the identical amount of N25,000,000 (twenty-five million Naira) in a bank of the new generation.
Two exotic cars worth N23,000,000 (twenty-three million naira) were found on him when he was apprehended. As per Justice Okunnu’s ruling, the sentence is to be served consecutively.
Aroke is currently awaiting decision on two more matters before Justice B. Idris of the Federal High Court of Lagos. In 2016, information surfaced that H-Money had carried out a second $100 million fraud out of Kiri Kiri Maximum Prison during his four years in prison from 2012 to 2016. Hope Olusegun Aroke, also known as HMoney, carried out his illegal business while serving a 24-year term at Lagos’ toughest jail. Wilson Uwajuren, a spokesman for the EFCC, stated in a statement issued on November 19, 2016, that Aroke had repeatedly left the prison to visit with his wife and two kids and to go to parties in the state.
He is accused of using a network of collaborators, some of whom are the subject of fraud and money laundering investigations, to carry out the theft directly out of jail. The EFCC obtained intelligence that led to the revelation of his most recent fraud schemes, which were carried out from the Maximum Correctional Center’s basement. The first mystery that the EFCC had to solve was how the prisoner could carry on with his despicable profession of Internet fraud.
Based on preliminary findings, the prisoner was able to use a cell phone and the internet in the Correctional Center, which is not where he was meant to be serving his sentence. The discovery that Aroke had admitted himself to the Nigeria Police Hospital in Falomo, Lagos for an unexplained illness was even more perplexing.
After leaving the hospital, he would go on to stay in hotels, see his wife and their two kids, and go to various social gatherings. The EFCC looked into the circumstances surrounding his hospital admittance as well as the people who helped him go from the hospital to hotels and other social events.
An inquiry found that the Aroke opened two accounts with First Bank Plc and Guaranty Trust Bank Plc under a false identity, Akinwunmi Sorinmade, for a felon who was purportedly serving a jail sentence. In 2018, he also paid N22 million for a property in Fountain Spring Estate in Lekki, Lagos, and purchased a 2018 Lexus RX 350 model registered in Maria Jennifer Aroke, his wife.
Additionally, the prisoner had access to his wife’s bank account token, which he utilized to move money around without restriction. Subsequent inquiry showed that in 2015, while serving a jail sentence at Lekki County Homes, Aroke purchased a four-bedroom duplex at Plot 12, Deji Fadoju Street, Megamounds Estate, from them for N48 million. This was done while his trial was still pending.
After receiving a tip, the EFCC apprehended two Nigerian undergraduate fraudsters in Malaysia during the last few weeks of 2012 at the 1004 Housing Estate in Victoria Island, Lagos. Aroke was one of them. The native of Okene, Kogi state, had stated that she was enrolled in the Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan University in Malaysia to study computer science. However, the Commission’s identified him as the focal point of a complex, two-continent internet fraud enterprise.
During Aroke’s arrest, EFCC agents searched his apartment and found a number of items, including laptops, iPads, travel documents, check books, flash drives, internet modems, and three exotic cars: a Range Rover Sport, a Mercedes-Benz Jeep, and a Mercedes-Benz 4Matic.
Judge Lateefa Okunnu of the Lagos State High Court ultimately found him guilty on two charges of forgery, wire transfer, check cloning, and money acquisition by false pretense. On the two offenses, he received sentences of twelve years in jail.
