Two prosecution witnesses in the ongoing trial of the founder/CEO of the Afriq Arbitrage System Limited, AAS, Jesam Michael Ubi, testified against him on Wednesday, October 21, 2026, at the Federal High Court, Abuja, presided over by Justice Obiora Egwuatu.
The two witnesses, PW 25, Samson Egbu, who is based in Nasarawa State, and Abuja-based businessman Isaac Kwaghbee, PW26, told the court how Ubi used his company, AAS, to allegedly defraud them of about 15,109 USDT, an equivalent of Fifteen Thousand, One Hundred and Nine United States Dollars, in the ongoing $87,000,000,000 (Eighty-Seven Million USD) cryptocurrency investment fraud case against Ubi.
USDT is a stablecoin or a crypto token built to track one US dollar. It is currently at par with the United States Dollar.
The witnesses who are victims of Ubi and his firm, Arbitrage Trading Platform, Afriq Arbitrage System, AAS, testified on the loss of their investment capital and promised return on investment.
Led in testimony by prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho, SAN, Egbu told the court he was lured into investing USDT8,190 (Eight Thousand, One Hundred and Ninety USDT) in the crashed crypto investment platform by the assurance and seeming authenticity that were created around it by the founder.
“He (Jesam) repeatedly told us that your money cannot be touched. He told us that the money would be secured in the Binance platform and nobody except the investor can touch the money,” Egbu said.
Also, Kwaghbee said he made a total investment of USDT7,000, using two separate registration accounts. “The money I invested into the platform was proceeds of the land my late father died and left behind for our family. I sold it to make more money for myself and my siblings when the investment promised high yields,” he said.
Online videos and posters show how the founder of the platform promised his unsuspecting victims 1.6 per cent return on investment within 24 hours to get their buy-in. He also reportedly produced videos and photographs of the company’s head office, which he claimed was in the United States; employed the services of some local and foreign celebrities to promote the investment as authenticity for the platform.
The platform has long been shut down, contrary to the promises by the defendant, who now blames one Oluwasesan Abayomi for the failure of the investment platform.
Addressing the court on the statements, investment documents and other relevant materials that were produced by the witnesses and tendered in court by the EFCC, the defence Counsel, Uchena Njoku, SAN, objected to the witness documents but reserved his reason(s).
In his cross-examination of the witnesses, Njoku said that the second witness invested his second account in another website different from the AAS platform. He also asked the witnesses to be sincere and tell the court that their initial investments generated the expected return on investment until it was manipulated by someone other than the accused.
Justice Egwuatu adjourned the matter to December 2, 202,6 for continuation of trial.
