The Nigeria Police Force has arrested Wilfred Bonse as one of the suspects in the $2 million Bitcoin theft at the Patricia cryptocurrency exchange in February 2022.
In a news conference on the previous day, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who is in charge of public relations for the force, made this announcement.
The officer made the announcement in a video and caption shared on the NPF’s official Instagram page, Investigative reporters found that Wilfred Bonse ran for governor of Cross River state as a candidate for the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the March 2023 election.
Additionally, the Peoples Gazette reported in February that Wilfred Bonse was suspected of getting at least N40 million from a cyber fraud plan run by a group of hackers known as The Syndicate.
According to the NPF statement, Wilfred Bonse worked with others to move fifty million naira (N50,000,000) that came from switching sixty-seven million naira (N607,000,000.00k) from Patricia Technology company’s account to his bank account using a cryptocurrency wallet.
The police have promised that everyone participating in the criminal plot will be brought to justice, even though more information and the names of other suspects have not yet been made public.
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A backstory
Patricia and its users have had a rough year for most of 2023. Patricia had trouble after its protection was broken sometime last year. But no one knew about it until May of this year when the media reported the breach. It cost the crypto market N2 billion.
To get things back on track, the business first turned the loss into debt tokens. Many people didn’t like this, and many refused to take the action. When that didn’t work, the business chose to turn the debts into equity, which meant the customers owned the business.
The company’s CEO, Hanu Fejiro, told the media that the move is an essential part of its plan to raise money and reorganize its bills. A lot of people had come up with the idea, he said, but it wasn’t required.
In a recent private meeting with the reporters, the CEO said that customers could start withdrawing money on November 20, which was last Monday.
In a WhatsApp group talk on the second day, many customers were upset that they couldn’t get their money from the platform. Patricia told the customers that the repayment date was November 20. Cryptocurrency (ETH) assets could only be sent to one customer’s bank account after being changed to naira.
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What comes next now that Wilfred Bonse has been caught?
According to the NPF, this arrest was made after much hard work. However, buyers are eagerly waiting for the following news.
Wilfred Bonse is one of the prominent people behind the hack, Hanu Fejiro told the press in a private chat.
There will be consequences for all the leaders who helped the hackers hide the stolen money. Some high-level politicians haven’t been named yet. Says Hanu.
To get back as much money as possible, the CEO says his team is now going to court.
“We are waiting for healing to happen. When it does, the police will let everyone know, and that money will be used to pay back the lost funds,” Hanu said.