Osang Usie Otukpa: International hit squad took down Nigerian who allegedly scammed Aussies of millions

A high-profile Nigerian footwear entrepreneur turned suspected online scammer who allegedly stole more than $8 million from 139 Australians, has been arrested in an elaborate sting with a surprising twist.

A squad of crack Nigerian law enforcement officers and a private investigator staked out the Murtala Mohammed International airport in Lagos, one of Nigeria’s busiest cities, lying in wait for Osang Usie Otukpa to return from a trip to the US — where some of the Australians’ missing funds are believed to have ended up.

The 34-year-old, who founded the Nigerian Flykicks sneaker company was grabbed and taken into custody in a public-private take-down organised by Australian private investigator Ken Gamble from IFW Global, Europe-based Rexxfield Cybercrime Investigations founder, Michael Roberts, and members of Nigeria’s foremost anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

A spokesman for the EFCC said he expected Mr Otukpa to be charged and face court.

Mr Gamble and Mr Roberts who were working on behalf of the Australian victims, said they teamed up and bypassed what they call “bureaucratic delays” by Australian authorities, taking action and working directly with Nigerian EFCC and US law enforcement.

Apart from tracking down the scammers they are helping Australian victims recover some of their lost funds.

Tens of thousands of dollars have already been located and frozen and it is hoped more can be recovered during the legal process.

“It is important to realise that cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin wallets can be traced on the blockchain and in many cases frozen by exchanges, when authorities act quickly enough,” Mr Gamble said.

Investigations have revealed Mr Otukpa, who has sold sneakers to celebrities in Nigeria, has allegedly used at least five aliases including the Westernised names Ford Thompson, Oscar Donald Tyler, Michael Haye, Jose Vitto and Kristin Davidson to scam victims by luring them on social media to invest in his rogue cryptocurrency investment platform, known as the Liquid Asset Group (LAG).

Many of the known victims came from Victoria, New South Wales, and the Northern Territory, but it is suspected there may be many more.

And in a strange twist one of his biggest alleged victims was Melbourne-based Brian Jacques Creigh a former director of crypto investment company Panacea Capital Pty Ltd, who has himself now been permanently banned by the Australian corporate regulator, ASIC for acting dishonestly.

In the surprise development, an ASIC investigation revealed that although Mr Creigh had become a victim of the LAG fund scam by investing his and other investors funds with the scammers group, he should never have been acting on the investors’ behalf.

He was not licensed to act as a financial adviser. Between them they lost millions of dollars.

ASIC has since published findings that Mr Creigh has been banned from ever being involved in a financial services business, and that he was not adequately trained or competent enough to see the warning signs that he was dealing with scammers.

ASIC has said Mr Creigh acted dishonestly and with a lack of integrity, gave false evidence to Investigators and told his investors not to cooperate with the ASIC investigation — leading to his permanent ban.

Mr Creigh has been contacted for comment but did not respond.

The LAG scam has been described as a spider’s web of fraud stretching across three countries and was allegedly masterminded by Mr Otukpa.

Investigators have been able to trace a number of large deposits totalling more than $2 million to accounts in the US and potentially Canada and the United Kingdom.

Investigations revealed the stolen investment funds were converted to Bitcoin using intermediary wallets and then transferred to suspect-controlled addresses.

The scam exploited custodial wallets on Binance and other Virtual Asset Service Providers.

One of the Australian victims of the scam, who did not want to be identified, said there are “a lot of families bleeding out and hurting” after being scammed.

“We need to stay focused on recovering what we can,” he said.