21, March 2024
Anti-extortion campaign: North West mayors commit to free civil registration document issuance 0
At least 13 of the 34 mayors in the North West Region of Cameroon have issued statements emphasizing their commitment to ensuring the free issuance of civil status documents in their respective councils henceforth. They have also expressed their resolve to dismantle “middlemen” networks which often mastermind extortion from those seeking civil registration services.
The announcements come as a response to a campaign led last year by the office of the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) of the region, condemning extortion by council authorities in the issuance of these important documents.
Among the councils that have announced the free issuance of civil status registration documents, according to the office of the PIC, are those of Andek, Balikumbat, Benakuma, Mbengwi, Misaje, Ndop, Ndu, Njinikom, Nkor, Nkum, Zhoa, Bamenda I, Tubah and Wum.
Last year, the office of the PIC launched a region-wide campaign which was aimed at discouraging the practice whereby poor citizens are made to cough out huge sums of money to either obtain birth, death or marriage certificates in many councils across the region.
The PIC, Simon Tamfu Fai, told Biometric Update in an interview at the time that the campaign was to remind council authorities that collecting money from citizens to register births, deaths or marriages is against the law and that all those involved in such illegal practices were exposing themselves to sanctions spelled out by the laws in force.
“This campaign is prompted by the growing and persistent complaints reported to the Office of the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) in the North West Region. It is also confirmed by a survey carried out in 2022 which revealed that council administrators collect as much as FACF 15,000 for the issuance of birth certificates and as much as FCFA 100,000 to celebrate marriages,” Fai said then.
Months after the campaign was launched, the PIC reports that many councils in the region are now increasing becoming compliant with the civil status legislation law.
“Following the campaign to promote the free establishment of civil status documents, some mayors have signed municipal orders announcing the free establishment of these documents in their municipalities. The number of press releases signed by mayors in this regard keeps increasing,” the office of the PIC said in a statement posted to its official Facebook page.
“The Public Independent Conciliator, Tamfu Simon Fai, encourages mayors who haven’t started issuing civil status documents free of charge in their municipality to do so, and to sign press releases in this light, as other mayors have done,” the statement adds.
It is expected that the move by the office of the PIC will go a long way in increasing the rate of obtaining civil status documents in the crisis-ridden region, and probably serve as a lesson to the rest of the country where access to civil status registration services remains difficult and expensive.
Source: Biometricupdate
23, March 2024
US: Cameroonian National sentenced to 12 years in prison for fraud 0
U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Njuh Valentine Fombe, a/k/a “Valentine”, age 37, a Cameroonian citizen, formerly residing in Beltsville, Maryland, today to 12 years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for conspiracies to commit wire fraud and money laundering, and for aggravated identity theft, in connection with a business email compromise fraud scheme with intended losses of more than $2 million. Based on court documents and evidence presented during Fombe’s sentencing, the Court also found that Fombe engaged in a pandemic-related unemployment fraud scheme while he was a fugitive residing in the United Kingdom.
In addition to prison time, Judge Chasanow ordered Fombe to pay restitution of $325,856.12 and to forfeit $547,310.23.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Chief Robert McCullough of the Baltimore County Police Department; and Chief Russell E. Hamill III of the Laurel Police Department.
According to court documents and evidence presented at today’s sentencing hearing, from at least September 2016 to August 2018, Fombe conspired with others to commit wire fraud by conducting business email compromise (“BEC”) schemes in which Fombe‘s co-conspirators gained unauthorized access to email accounts, personal identifying information, and bank accounts by sending false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts. Fombe and his co-conspirators then used the illegally obtained personal information to obtain counterfeit checks in the name and information of the victims’ bank accounts. Victims of the BEC scheme were from California, Tennessee, Michigan, Hawaii and Illinois. Fombe and his co-conspirators also registered fraudulent shell entities to facilitate the scheme, opening and managing bank accounts in the names of the fraudulent shell entities’, as well as their own names and aliases, to direct and receive proceeds of the BEC and check schemes.
After Fombe’s indictment in 2019, Fombe fled the United States on a fraudulently obtained Honduran passport, ultimately residing in the United Kingdom until his arrest there on June 16, 2022 and subsequent extradition to the United States.
United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended HSI, the Baltimore County Police Department and the Laurel Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly O. Hayes, Christopher M. Sarma, and Bijon Mostoufi, who prosecuted the case.
Source: Justice.gov/usa