A Federal High Court in Lagos has found Nollywood producer and director Olajide Kareem, also known as Seun Egbegbe, guilty of fraud after imprisoning him for six years and eight months.
After allegedly receiving money under false pretense from no less than 40 Bureaux de Change operators over the course of two years between 2015 and 2017, Egbegbe was placed on remand on February 10.
He was charged with defrauding the BDC operators by saying he had naira to exchange for foreign money.
Only count 19 of the 44 counts brought against Egbegbe was judged to be true, and he was given a seven-year prison term.
But the judge decided to free him because he had already served six years and eight months in jail.
The police charged the controversial 45-year-old member of the Yoruba film business with fraud in the amount of N39m; correspondingly, $90,000 and £12,550 and N39,098,100.
Egbegbe was charged with defrauding the BDC operators. Egbegbe previously managed the Fuji artists Wale Ayinde, Tekoma, and Pasuma.
Unfortunately, more than three years after posting bail, the filmmaker who supported the creation of multiple Yoruba movies under his Ebony Films Productions banner was unable to do so.
The former inmate was initially charged with 36 counts of alleged Advance Fee fraud on February 10, 2017, before Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo.
Later, Lawal Kareem, Olalekan Yusuf, and Muyideen Shoyombo joined the pair on a 44-count accusation.
On Tuesday, however, the court released Egbegbe after finding him guilty of just one of the 44 crimes brought against him.
43 of the 44 count charges, according to Justice Oguntoyinbo, were dismissed because there weren’t enough witnesses to back up the allegations.
The prosecuting team failed, according to the judge, to present evidence for Counts 4, 19, and 21 that was supported by witnesses.
The police tampered with the money taken from the accused, the judge added.
Additionally, Justice Oguntoyinbo determined that Egbegbe should receive a refund for all of the money that was taken from him as evidence.
