The Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday, June 19, 2025, arraigned Adonu Kingsley Ifeanyi, a suspected Ponzi scheme operator, before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Adonu was arraigned on a five-count charge bordering on money laundering to the tune of N10 billion.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Adonu Kingsley Ifeanyi, between June 4, 2021 and July 23, 2021, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did take possession of the total sum of N1,076,337,842 (One Billion, Seventy-Six Million, Three Hundred and Thirty-Seven Thousand, Eight Hundred and Forty-Two Naira) through a bank account with the name ‘S.Mobile Netzone Limited’ domiciled in Fidelity Bank Plc., which sum you knew formed part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit: stealing, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2)(d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.”
He pleaded not guilty to all charges when they were read to him.
Following his plea, prosecution counsel S. I. Suleiman requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendant in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCOS) pending trial.
In response, defense counsel Chibuike Opara prayed the court to remand his client in the EFCC’s custody pending the filing and determination of a bail application.
Suleiman opposed the application, stating that the appropriate place of custody for a defendant after arraignment is the Correctional Center.
Justice Aneke ruled that the defendant be remanded at the Ikoyi facility of the Nigerian Correctional Services and adjourned the matter to July 4, 2025, for hearing of the bail application.
