Fraudster impersonating singer Flavour sentenced to two years for $53,000 fraud
A federal high court in Lagos has recently sentenced one Courage Ipaka, a Benin City resident for impersonating famous singer Flavour, to 24 months in prison for defrauding a U.S.-based woman out of $53,000.
He was found guilty of tricking U.S. citizen Yvelte M. Thompson by posing as the Ada singer where he accepted money using Bitcoin wallets and promising to arrange performances in the United States.
Azibagiri Dan Ekpar, an investigator with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), led the investigation into Ipaka’s activities. Ekpar revealed that the fraud came to light after a petition was filed by Eyitayo Tolulope Abiodun and others on behalf of Thompson.
He said:
“Upon receiving the petition, we invited Flavour, who was found to be innocent of the allegations.
“Our investigation revealed that Ipaka had impersonated Flavour to obtain $53,000 from Thompson in 2021.
He transferred the funds through Bitcoin wallets and later converted them into Nigerian Naira, which was deposited into his Access Bank account.”
The EFCC successfully recovered N7.9 million from Ipaka, which was traced through Zenith and Access Bank manager’s cheques.
Flavour delighted in this news, took to social media to post “One down. Ndi Uchu!”
Netizens joined Flavour in celebrating the arrest of the impersonator, and none of them showed empathy towards the fraudster. See some reactions below:
mhiz.mathilda1 wrote, “53k dollar and you look like that ? Y’all be fr”.
dinzzvib wrote, “I don’t understand. People love flavor to the level of dashing them $56k? Flavor we.r no fine??? All this lgbo people ehnn…”
chimexkalu wrote, “EFCC dey manage marker?”
theofficialdrlove wrote, “That was how one woman went to odumeje’s church in search of FLAVOR her husband whom she been dating for years on Facebook”.
tatajesusgirl wrote, “Na small small money dey carry lagos boys go prison”.
shyniebaeby wrote, “It’s takes COURAGE to be able to dupe an ovibo in pretence of a Nigerian Celebrity”.
sir_tigga wrote, “But how una go dey use una fellow Naija man dey work”.
oluwaseuntolulope3 wrote, “People need to start being accountable for their actions…. we need a better society”.
oh_zealous wrote, “He won’t be bothered about rent for the next 2 vears, and when he’s out He will be given a hero welcome and get contributed for by his colleagues…… Congratulations to him”.
By Ezinne Okorie.
