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N6.3bn fraud: EFCC closes case against ex-Plateau Gov Jang

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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has closed its case against a former Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang.

Also facing trial is a former cashier in the Office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Yusuf Pam.

Justice C. L. Dabup of Plateau State High Court in Jos is presiding over the case.

Jang and Pam are being prosecuted for alleged criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of state funds to the tune of N6.3billion.

The EFCC presented fourteen witnesses and tendered several exhibits.

At the last sitting, the EFCC had presented its fourteenth witness (PW14), Taiwo Oloronyomi.

Oloronyomi is a Chief Superintendent of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offence Commission (ICPC).

While presenting his evidence, Pam’s counsel, S. Olawale raised an objection, arguing that the statement of his client to the ICPC was not voluntary.

Olawale told the court that his client was subjected to physical and psychological torture by one Hajiya Fatima Mohammed of the commission.

But Justice Dabup admitted the statement Pam made on November 17, 2016 to the ICPC.

It contained details of the withdrawal of monies taken to Jang through cheques approved by the Permanent Secretary in the SSG’s office.

The judge however rejected the statement Pam made on November 23, 2016, on grounds that the mandatory cautionary word was not taken before Pam wrote it.

The defendants were expected to open their defence today but Jang’s counsel, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) and Olawale informed the court of their decision not to do so.

“If we are not providing any evidence, the law says that the prosecution has 14 days to address the court, ten days for the defence to reply, and another 5 days for the prosecution to reply on point of law”, Ozekhome said.

Justice Dabup adjourned the matter to July 1, 2022 for adoption of final written addresses

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New leaders, new fund: Sequoia has raised $7B to expand its AI bets

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Few venture firms have bet more aggressively on AI than Sequoia Capital, and it isn’t slowing down.

The Silicon Valley stalwart has raised roughly $7 billion for a new fund, according to Bloomberg. Sequoia declined TechCrunch’s request for comment. The money will go toward what the firm calls its “expansion strategy” — essentially its late-stage investing arm, focused on the U.S. and Europe — and it’s nearly double Sequoia’s last comparable fund, a $3.4 billion vehicle raised in 2022.

That growth in fund size reflects something bigger: late-stage investing has taken on an entirely new meaning in the AI era. Companies can now scale at a speed and cost that would have been unimaginable a decade ago, and the firms backing them have to keep pace.

The money signals where Sequoia sees the future: deeply embedded in AI, from the giants building the underlying technology to the startups putting it to work. The firm has backed two of the most prominent players in the AI race — OpenAI originally and, more recently, Anthropic — both of which are reportedly eyeing public listings in 2026. The development that could mean a significant payday for the firm.

Sequoia isn’t only swinging for the foundational AI heavyweights, however. It has also placed bets on other buzzy startups, including Physical Intelligence, the Bay Area robotics startup, and Factory, which builds AI agents for enterprise engineering teams.

The fundraise is also the first major capital raise under Sequoia’s new leadership, with Alfred Lin and Pat Grady now serving as co-stewards of the 54-year-old firm.

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Factory hits $1.5B valuation to build AI coding for enterprises

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More than three years after the emergence of generative AI, AI-assisted coding remains by far the most popular and lucrative use case for the technology.

Although multiple companies — including Anthropic, maker of Claude Code, as well as Cursor and Cognition — are already vying for dominance, investors believe there is room for at least one more player.

On Wednesday, Factory, a startup developing AI agents for enterprise engineering teams, announced it had raised $150 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners, and Blackstone. Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, joined the startup’s board.

Factory founder Matan Grinberg told the Wall Street Journal that the company’s key differentiator is its ability to switch between different foundation models, such as Anthropic’s Claude or Chinese AI startup DeepSeek. However, startups like Cursor also don’t rely on a single model to generate code.

Factory’s customers include engineering teams at Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and Palo Alto Networks.

The startup was founded in 2023 after Grinberg, then a PhD student at UC Berkeley, cold-emailed Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire. The two bonded over mutual academic interest. (Maguire’s PhD from Caltech is in the same area of physics Grinberg was studying.)

Maguire convinced Grinberg to drop out and launch Factory, with Sequoia backing the startup at the seed stage.

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