The Palm Ridge Specialised Commercial Crimes Court has remanded Edozie Okobi in custody until 26 April 2021 for a formal bail application after his court appearance on Tuesday on fraud and theft allegations involving approximately R6 million.
It is alleged that Okobi and his co-accused girlfriend, Angel Tau, allegedly fraudulently created a duplicate email address to launder money from a prospective steel pipe buyer in February 2017.
Further investigation revealed that Okobi and Tau allegedly interrupted and redirected the steel pipe buyer to their fraudulent email address, where they provided new banking details, to which an amount of R6 million was transferred.
The investigating team facilitated the recovery of an amount of R4 million before it could be spent by the accused.
Tau was arrested in May 2017 and has since been sentenced to eight years direct imprisonment on counts of fraud and theft.
A warrant of arrest was issued for Okobi’s apprehension and he was circulated on local and international boarder movement control as a person of interest in a fraud and theft related matter.
The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team in Germiston successfully traced and nabbed Okobi in Douglasdale and subsequently charged him for fraud and theft on Tuesday. –SAnews.gov.za
