Wire fraud convict, Obinwanne Okeke, widely known as Invictus Obi, has appealed against his recent sentence to 10 years’ imprisonment by a U.S. court.
The 33-year-old Nigerian, who was arrested in the U.S. on August 6, 2019, pleaded guilty to the offence of conspiracy to commit wire fraud last year June.
U.S. authorities said victims lost nearly $11 million (about N4 billion) to the large-scale fraud perpetrated through global business email and computer hacking schemes between 2015 and 2019.
Okeke, formerly celebrated internationally as a successful young African entrepreneur, was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment by a court in the Eastern District of Virginia on February 16.
Newsmen reported how the judge, Rebecca Smith, also ordered him to restitute about $10.7 million proceeds of his fraud to the U.S. government.
The minutes of the sentencing proceedings seen by newsmen indicated that Okeke was notified of his right of appeal, but waived it in his plea agreement with U.S. authorities.
Newsmen have confirmed that the convict filed his notice of appeal against the sentence on Tuesday.
This newspaper on Friday obtained a copy of his notice of appeal and other accompanying documents filed at the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia.
In the notice of appeal, Okeke noted that he “entered a guilty plea to Count One and was sentenced to 10 years as to Count One of the indictment by Judge Rebecca Beach Smith”.
“I, the above-named appellant, hereby appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from the above-stated sentence,” he added.
The grounds of appeal are not disclosed in the notice, but he is likely going to be arguing that the sentence imposed along with restitution and forfeiture orders issued against him was excessive.
Newsmen report that the convict, his relatives, and other associates, had in a pre-sentencing filing, pleaded with the judge for leniency.
He also kicked against making restitution, with his lawyer, John Iweanoge, arguing that Unatrac, one of the fraud victims, had already recovered approximately $2.5 million.
