Former Malta Premier League player Sunday Ikechukwu Eboh was found guilty of money laundering as part of a romance fraud case and sentenced to three years imprisonment on Monday. He was also fined €20,000.

The former player was among a group of Nigerian men and a Maltese woman who were accused of having tricked an elderly woman by fostering an online relationship with a fictitious American soldier who told her he was moving to Malta following his deployment. She transferred €58,000 to him in a series of small bank transactions to local banks. 

Eboh is a familiar name locally: the former footballer played for a series of Maltese clubs over the past 20 years, from Marsa to Birkirkara, Floriana, Marsaxlokk, Naxxar and Pembroke. He retired in 2020. 

Two members of the plot had admitted to their involvement, and later testified against the co-accused.

The court on Monday convicted other members of the plot. Tony Ogbonna Anuforo was sentenced to 28 months imprisonment and ordered to reimburse €15, 400 within six months.

The court said it was ordering compensation of the victim rather than order forfeiture of an equivalent amount in favour of the State coffers.

Both are to pay €2, 572.57 each in expert expenses. 

All their properties are forfeited in favour of the government. 

The court said it also "strongly solicits" the principal immigration officer to exercise his powers once the accused have served their punishment.

Co-accused fined €200 over false declaration

Alexandra Pace was found guilty of making a false declaration and relapsing and cleared of all the other offences.  She was condemned to a €200 fine. 

Pace was cleared of money laundering since it found no proof that she even suspected the funds she was about to receive were of tainted origin. When Tabi Ovi (who was previously found guilty in separate proceedings) testified, he noted that Pace initially did not know about such a scheme, so it was when the money came in that she checked since the bank requested a reason.

Pace did not get any form of commission. 

All three were placed under a 3-year restraining order in favour of the two victims.

The case goes back to September 2020 when a woman reported at Paola police station how her mother who had been chatting with someone named Smith Jones on Facebook. 

He told her mum that he was an American soldier deployed in Afghanistan. He asked for her mobile number and the two began to chat on WhatsApp.  He then told her that she would receive a package as well as €45K and a certificate worth €1m. 

He then sent her details of several Maltese bank accounts and asked her for money. 

The first request was followed by more. And so, the woman was drawn into the fraudulent scheme.

Magistrate Donatella Frendo Dimech observed that the lifestyle Sunday Eboh was leading, rents, payments for maintenance and holidaying abroad was "not consonant with his lawful income. "

He came up with a story about a certain "Tony Montana" whom he met in a Bugibba African shop. Tony had allegedly asked Eboh for permission to use his account to receive €7000 from his girlfriend. 

But the tale about Tony appeared to have been fabricated and the dubious character was kept "constantly in the shadows... his identity undisclosed. "

Sunday Eboh was "untruthful at best, unreliable, unsubstantiated in totality, with his Tony Montana remaining a phantom. "

The court ordered the police commissioner to continue further investigations in a bid to identify and bring to justice another man allegedly involved in the scam.  

Ogbonna declared that he worked as security guard since 2018. But there was nothing on Jobsplus records. The magistrate ordered copy of the judgment to be notified to police, employment and tax authorities for "immediate investigations and possible prosecution." 

Court also noted that both Eboh and Ogbonna showed "no remorse" and deserved to go to jail. 

Punishment was also to serve as a deterrent "to anyone who thinks they can identify and prey on innocent, trustful and unsuspecting members of society. "

The "docile elderly" victim was "physically and psychologically" broken by the "elaborate" scheme devised by these "evil criminals, " observed the court.

Lawyers Charles Mercieca and Joe Mifsud represented Eboh and Ogbonna while Pace was represented by lawyers Franco Debono and Francesca Zarb.