More trouble for ‘Tamale Sakawa King’ as he is fingered in another scandal

The woes of Maxwell Peter who was arrested last weekend for his alleged involvement in a $10 million gold scam with 18 others is far from over.

Impeccable details emerging from the Northern Regional Police Command reveals that he has been fingered in yet another scandal and could be facing double prosecutions both in Tamale and Accra for his roles.

According to a police source, another expatriate has lodged a complaint that the suspect used various means to defraud him hundreds of thousands of dollars with the promise of transacting business with him and has since January 2016 failed to honour his part of the bargain.

Maxwell Peter who is a known cyber fraudster within the Tamale Metropolis is noted for using luxurious fleet of cars and was arrested at his home in Tamale by a combined team of security personnel form the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) last weekend, handcuffed and taken to Accra.

Described as the ‘Sakawa King’ of Tamale, Maxwell Peter show of wealth and extravagant lifestyle is not new to residents of the town as he is reported to have built and lived in one of the much talked about houses in the area.

It has been established that his arrest follows more than a year of investigations by EOCO in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) of the United States of America.

According to facts available, Maxwell and his gang of 19 reportedly used dubious means of defrauding a US-based company of 10 million dollars under the guise of supplying it with gold bars but failed.

The suspects between 2007 and 2016 presented themselves as gold dealers and succeeded in getting the US-based company to release a whopping $10Million to supply it with gold.

To ensure that their partners believed them, they created a bogus email usually containing either an attachment or a link to a malicious website which was linked to the said real estate company and infected the company’s entire computer network and harvested information including company files, credentials and gave the accused persons access to sensitive information which aided them to dupe the company.

The criminal network are facing 19 counts of defrauding by false pretences, conspiracy to defraud and unlawful access to computer programme or electronic record, contrary to Section 130(1) of the Electronic Transaction Act 2008 (Act772).

They are; Maxwell Peter, Babatunde Martins, Bernard Emurhowhoariogho Okorhi, Dana Brady, James Dean, Javier Luis and Ramos Alonso.

Those on the run include; Sumaila Hardy, Victor Daniel Fortune Okorhi, Dennis Noah, Olufoajimi Abegunde, Ayodeji Olumde Ojo.

Maxwell Peter and Babatunde Martins were arraigned before an Accra District Court on Tuesday but refused bail by the trial judge indicating this could impede investigations..

Meanwhile, police retrieved documents covering various transactions from Maxwell Peter he had with his victims, which amounted to $60,000 and €8,500.

He confessed having had several business contracts with the complainants and also confirmed the payments, supposed to have been used for gold purchases.