Chairman of Abuja-based Invictus Group Obiwanne Okeke is due for sentencing on Tuesday in his trial in the United States for wire fraud.
Also known as Invictus Obi, Mr Okeke was arrested in 2019. Last June, he pleaded guilty to the allegation of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and agreed to cooperate with American authorities.
His relatives and pastor among others have sent letters of attestation to character to Justice Rebecca Smith handling the case at a Virginia court.
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Okeke’s lawyer John Iweanoge begged the court to sentence him to a substantially lower jail term than required by the law.
In the court documents, detailing the defendant’s position on the sentencing, which was obtained by Premium Times, Mr Iweanoge argued that the guideline range of imprisonment of 97 to 121 months or 151-188 months “will be too much for someone of his age and status”.
Okeke’s former pastor Ikechukwuka Nwanze at Kingsway International Christian Center South Africa (KICC SA), wrote the judge on February 9, pleading for mercy.
“I know Mr Okeke, as he was a member of my congregation at KICC SA for a period of 5 years and at the time he was a student at Monash University in South Africa,” he said.
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The clergyman said “he was in complete shock when he found out the wrongdoings Okeke committed”, insisting that “it was not consistent with the character he witnessed during his tertiary education and the period he was in the church”.
In addition, the defendant’s brother and sister, Alexander Okeke and Florence Ozobugha respectively, in two separate letters, appealed to the judge to be considerate in her sentencing.
One of Okeke’s victims, Unatrac, a subsidiary of American heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, lost $11 million in spurious wire transfers, court documents showed.
The conviction could see him spend 20 years behind bars with up to $250,000 in fines among other punishments.
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