The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says a convicted Nigerian fugitive, Florence Enwerim Onyegbu, was on Thursday, March 23, extradited to the US where she is wanted to answer to criminal charges bordering on the violation of the U.S. law involving the offer and payment of illegal remuneration in a health care matter.
On February 14, 2011, a US court sentenced Onyegbu to 46 months in prison and ordered her to pay approximately $1.3 million in restitution.
Onyegbu pleaded guilty to a one-count charge of offer and payment of illegal remuneration in relation to her home health company — De-Promise Home Health Services — located in Dallas.
EFCC said the Nigerian was extradited following a request from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The EFCC said its investigations revealed that she had changed her name from Florence E. Onyegbu to Janet Boi in an attempt to remain hidden.
However, she ran out of luck when operatives of the EFCC swooped on her at her residence in the Ojodu area of Lagos on February 21, 2022.
The EFCC said that upon her arrest, a national identity card with the name Janet Boi as well as a Texas driver’s license with the name Florence Enwerim Onyegbu were found on her.
The statement from EFCC reads:
‘The Commission, on March 22, 2023, handed over Onyegbu to the FBI, following an extradition order granted by Justice Z.B. Abubakar of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on December 2, 2022.
‘Recall that Onyegbu was arrested on February 12, 2011, in the U.S. and subsequently sentenced to 46 months imprisonment, following a guilty plea over the violation of the U.S. law bordering on the offer and payment of illegal remuneration in a health care matter.
‘She was ordered to report to begin her sentence on April 4, 2011. However, she failed to surrender on that date.
‘Consequently, she was further charged with failure to surrender for service of sentence in violation of U.S. Law on March 4, 2013.’
