The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has officially ordered the final forfeiture of 431 mobile phones to the federal government. The devices were previously recovered from a massive syndicate of Chinese nationals and other foreigners allegedly running an extensive cryptocurrency and romance scam network within the metropolis.

The presiding trial judge, Justice Dehinde Dipeolu, delivered the decisive ruling on Tuesday after hearing compelling arguments presented by Hanatu Kofarnaisa, the prosecuting counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The journey to Tuesday’s final forfeiture began in July 2026, when the EFCC initially approached the court to secure an interim forfeiture order over the 431 mobile phones. The anti-graft agency successfully argued that the devices were directly linked to the foreign suspects and were instrumental in perpetrating their highly organized fraudulent activities.

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Following standard legal procedures, the court granted the interim order and mandated the EFCC to publish the ruling in a national newspaper. This publication was intended to allow anyone with a legitimate interest in the property to appear before the court and show cause why the interim forfeiture should not be made permanent.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Kofarnaisa informed the court that the agency had fully complied with the directive, having published the interim order in The Guardian newspaper on August 11, 2026.

With no interested parties stepping forward to claim the devices or contest the ruling, the EFCC counsel maintained that the statutory requirements had been completely satisfied.

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Relying on this premise, she urged the court to grant the final forfeiture application in the interest of justice. After reviewing the application, Justice Dipeolu granted the request, permanently transferring the ownership of the 431 mobile phones to the federal government.

Uncovering a Massive Scam Network

The confiscated phones are the latest assets to be forfeited in a sprawling cybercrime investigation that dates back to December 2024. During a highly coordinated raid, EFCC operatives stormed a seven-storey building in Victoria Island, Lagos, leading to the dramatic arrest of 792 suspects. The arrested individuals included 114 Chinese nationals, 40 Filipinos, two Kazakhs, one Pakistani, and one Indonesian.

According to the EFCC, the foreign nationals had converted the building into a sophisticated training facility where they actively taught Nigerians how to initiate and execute lucrative cryptocurrency investment frauds and romance scams. Several of the foreign suspects were subsequently convicted for their roles in the illicit enterprise.

The dismantling of the criminal network led to an unprecedented haul of forfeited assets. Prior to Tuesday’s ruling, the federal government had already seized digital assets worth $222,729 in USDT from the syndicate. The court also ordered the forfeiture of a staggering array of operational equipment and household items found at the facility. These included 1,596 computers, 4,091 other mobile phones, 3,399 Nigerian SIM cards, and 350 foreign SIM cards. The exhaustive list of previously forfeited properties also featured seven vehicles, heavy-duty network servers, hundreds of routers, thousands of mattresses and sofas, and hundreds of deep freezers, painting a vivid picture of the sheer scale and audacity of the illicit operation.