Justice P. I. Ajoku of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has remanded a former chief accountant, Chinedu Akandu, his company, JCJ Global Services, and four former employees of Megastar Technical and Construction Company Limited, Andrew Odibenua, Calistus Madu, Abiola Allison and Okpeva Elija in custody for alleged conspiracy, money laundering and obtaining by false pretense.

The defendants were arraigned by the Port Harcourt Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, on a 14-count charge bordering on conspiracy, money laundering and obtaining by false pretence.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to all the charges preferred against them.The defendants ran into trouble when the Commission received a petition against them.The petitioner alleged that, sometime in November 2022, while reviewing the company’s financial ledger to check their financial expenses, it was observed that some illegal and unapproved transactions were carried out on the company’s account without any approval.Investigation revealed that the defendants who were former employees of the company, conspired amongst themselves to defraud the company and laundered the proceeds of the fraud to various accounts belonging to them for their personal gain.