A Nigerian court Wednesday jailed an American woman for two years after she admitted trying to smuggle out fake US bank cheques worth more than 760,000 dollars, anti-graft agency EFCC said.
Sharon Denis Thorpe pleaded guilty to 13 counts of forgery and currency trafficking at the Federal High Court in Lagos, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said in a statement.
She was sentenced to two years’ hard labour.
Her fiance and alleged accomplice Nigerian Kehinde Musediku, who was charged along with her, pleaded not guilty and was ordered remanded in custody, it said.
Thorpe and Musediku were arrested at Lagos international airport on February 20 as she was about to board a Qatar Airline flight to the United States, the statement added.
She was returning to her base in North Carolina after her visit to Musediku.
Musediku was deported from the United States in 2006 after he and his elder brother were convicted by Wake Sheriff Department Court, Raleigh, for obtaining property by false pretences and financial identity theft, the EFCC said.