Uche Raymond Okoye, also known as Uche Parker, a Nigerian man, has been found guilty of obtaining money under false pretenses on ten charges.
Okoye is suspected of being a member of an international criminal ring in which women are contacted on social media and given costly gifts and jewellery in exchange for money.
He was charged in February and was on trial before Magistrate Annette Singh in Georgetown Magistrate’s Court for the offenses.
The defendant has been remanded in custody pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for November 11.
He received $6,059,900 from 65-year-old Suruj Dei Balkaran at Georgetown between October and November 2020 with the purpose to defraud by falsely saying he had parcels for her.
He first denied the charges and pled not guilty. The allegations were brought against him by the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU), a branch of the Guyana Police Force (GPF). Okoye allegedly sought payments from women after befriending them on Facebook under a pseudonym, according to the SOCU.
During that time, he informed the victim about the supposed packages containing the latest gadgets and electronic devices. He reportedly told the older woman that he would be sending the items, and that she would need to contact a representative who would clear the packages and deliver them to her. The representative he referred to was himself, the SOCU prosecutor said.
According to the prosecutor, the Nigerian national sent the woman a WhatsApp number on which he could be contacted about the transactions. The woman paid the monies, expecting to collect the packages, but every time, she was told of some complications and was instructed to send more cash via bank transfers and Western Union.
During Okoye’s trial, the elderly woman testified that she has been a vendor all her life, and that the monies she was scammed of were her life savings. She disclosed that she sent monies to him on 10 different occasions. Other witnesses testified that monies were sent to their bank accounts and that they were paid a percentage of the sum upon withdrawing it.
According to the Police, the perpetrators would send a Facebook friend request to the intended victims, particularly women, and seek communication via WhatsApp. Police informed that the mastermind, who is residing overseas, would express a romantic interest in the women, and would later tell them he would be sending gifts and jewellery.
The women would later receive a call from someone purporting to be employed at a shipping company about a box arriving at the airport for them. At this point, the Police said, the women would be instructed to pay various sums of money to several individuals to uplift the boxes and to avoid prosecution.
These monies are sent to identified persons through money transfer services or a post office. But once the money is sent, the mastermind is never heard from again, and the victim never receives the packages.
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