Forbes magazine celebrated Nigerian young entrepreneur, Obinwanne Okeke arrested by FBI for a $12million fraud. 

Invictus founder and internationally celebrated young Nigerian entrepreneur, Obinwanne Okeke has been arrested by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiracy to commit fraud running into the sum of 12 million US dollars.

This was disclosed yesterday in an affidavit deposed to by one Marshall Ward, a special agent employed by the United States Department of Justice. According to the information disclosed, the investigation was premised on a complaint lodged by representatives of Unatrac Holdings Limited as being a victim of a huge fraud running into millions.

Obinwanne’s fraud involvement has once again slaughtered any hopes for young Nigerians who already are beret of young positive role models. His arrest and revelation of his fraud involvement have sent a wave of shock and shivers through the nerves of everyone who rooted for him and had great hopes for young achieving Nigerians. However, one has to be careful not to blanket every successful Nigerian with his case.

Before now, Okeke was highly sought after, internationally celebrated and respected and seen as a standard, young, financially successful entrepreneur. ‌ Empowerment inspirational talking point used to inspire aspiring young entrepreneurs. His arrest has left everyone scratching their heads trying to understand what could have led this young promising mind into such activity. 

Until now, young Nigerian entrepreneur and the Founder of Invictus Group – a business with interests that span across a number of sectors, which included mainly real estate development, energy, and construction. The Invictus Group operates in three African countries, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia. Most recently, has focused on building energy-efficient houses that feed exclusively from solar power.

He has since received several leadership honorary awards from local and international organizations as well as being featured on Forbes Magazine cover for June 2016 and was named as one of ‘30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 to Watch’ and in 2017, we named him also on our 30 under 30 young African creatives. In 2017 also, Invictus Group was named as Africa’s Most Innovative Investment Company of the Year by African Brand Congress. The same year, he was nominated the Young African Business Leader (West Africa) category for the All Africa Business Leaders Awards (AABLA). In 2018, he was nominated amongst 100 Most Influential Young Nigerians by Avance Media. In 2018 also, he was offered a contributor opportunity to write for Forbes magazine where he has since written only one entry. 

He was extensively involved in sourcing, structuring, implementing and monitoring various private equity investments in African and Australian markets and has over 10 years of investment experience.

According to stories, he is passionate about people and strongly believes in giving back. In the last decade, he has inspired both businesses and individuals in the private sector to invest in the less privileged and the uneducated in countries across the world. He spearheaded inter alia the Literacy Africa project which saw 100 000 (one hundred thousand) books being donated to children across the African continent in underprivileged schools through Invictus Foundation.

Background: 

How did Obinwanne rise to fame?

How long has Obinwanne Okeke been into this? Was Invictus a cover for his fraudulent lifestyle?

Born in Ukpor village in Anambra state on 9 November 1987, Obi is the 17th child of a polygamous father who died when Obi was only 16. He was raised by his mother and other relatives even before his father’s death. A typical grass to grace story, having grown up in poverty, Obinwanne moved from one relative to another to survive. He was said to have moved to Australia to study later on. According to his story, he “did all kinds of jobs just to survive” while studying in Australia. Although there has not been any context to how he got the opportunity to travel to Australia or who sponsored him. 

This thread throws a light 
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1162473738589343745.html

This also throws more light into the world of internet fraud. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1155907124662341632.html