The U.S. Federal
authorities have arrested no fewer than 34 Nigerians for allegedly defrauding
businesses and U.S. citizens of several millions of dollars, the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) said.
FBI said in a
statement that the fraud was a significant coordinated effort to disrupt
Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes that were designed to intercept and
hijack wire transfers from businesses and individuals, including many
senior citizens.
It said a counter effort, ‘Operation Wire Wire’, a coordinated
law enforcement effort by the U.S.Department of Justice, U.S. Department
of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service, was conducted over a six month period.
“The operation
culminated in over two weeks of intensified law enforcement activity resulting
in 74 arrests in the United States and overseas, including 29 in Nigeria, and
three in Canada, Mauritius and Poland.
“The operation also
resulted in the seizure of nearly $2.4 million, and the disruption and
recovery of approximately $14 million in fraudulent wire transfers,” FBI
said.
“Following an
investigation led by the FBI with the assistance of the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS)Criminal Investigation, Gloria Okolie and Paul Aisosa, both
Nigerian nationals residing in Dallas, Texas, were charged in an indictment
filed on June 6 in the Southern District of Georgia.
“According to the
indictment, they are alleged to have victimised a real estate closing attorney
by sending the lawyer a spoofing email posing as the seller and requesting that
proceeds of a real estate sale in the amount of $246,000 be wired to Okolie’s
account.
“They are charged with laundering approximately $665,000 in
illicit funds. The attorney experienced $130,000 in losses after the bank
was notified of the fraud and froze $116,000.
“Adeyemi Odufuye aka
“Micky,” “Micky Bricks,” “Yemi,” “GMB,” “Bawz” and “Jefe,” 32, and Stanley
Hugochukwu Nwoke, aka Stanley Banks,” “Banks,” “Hugo Banks,” “Banky,” and
“Jose Calderon,” 27, were charged in a seven-count indictment in the
District of Connecticut in a BEC scheme involving an attempted loss to victims
of approximately $2.6 million, including at least $440,000 in actual losses to
one victim in Connecticut.
“A third
co-conspirator Olumuyiwa Yahtrip Adejumo, aka “Ade,” “Slimwaco,” “Waco,” “Waco
Jamon,” “Hade,” and “Hadey,” 32, of Toledo, Ohio, pleaded guilty on April 20 to
one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
“Odufuye was
extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States and on Jan. 3, pleaded
guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of
aggravated identity theft.
“Nwoke was extradited
to the United States from Mauritius on May 25, marking the first extradition in
over 15 years from Mauritius. His case is pending.
“Richard Emem Jackson,
aka Auwire, 23, of Lagos, Nigeria, was charged in an indictment filed on May 17
in the District of Massachusetts with two counts of unlawful possession of a
means of identification as part of a larger fraud scheme.
“According to the
indictment, on two occasions in 2017, Jackson is alleged to have possessed the
identifications of two victims with the intent to commit wire fraud
conspiracy,” the U.S. authorities said.
FBI said foreign
citizens perpetrate many BEC scams adding, “those individuals are often members
of transnational criminal organisations, which originated in Nigeria but have
spread throughout the world”.
The U.S. authorities
expressed gratitude for the outstanding efforts of the participating countries,
including law enforcement actions that were coordinated and executed by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria to curb business
email compromise schemes that defraud businesses and individuals alike.
U.S. Attorney General
Jeff Sessions said: “This operation, which was funded and coordinated by the
FBI, serves as a model for international cooperation against specific threats
that endanger the financial well-being of each member country’s residents.
“Fraudsters can rob
people of their life’s savings in a matter of minutes. These are malicious and
morally repugnant crimes.
“The Department
of Justice has taken aggressive action against fraudsters in recent
months, conducting the largest sweep of fraud against American seniors in
history back in February.
“Now, in this
operation alone, we have arrested 42 people in the United States and 29 others
have been arrested in Nigeria for alleged financial fraud.
“And so I want to
thank the FBI, nearly a dozen U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, the Secret Service, PostalInspection
Services, Homeland Security Investigations, the Treasury Department, our
partners in Nigeria, Poland, Canada, Mauritius, Indonesia, and Malaysia, and
our state and local law enforcement partners for all of their hard work”.
Since the Internet Crime Complaint Centre (IC3) began
keeping track of BEC and its variant, Email Account Compromise (EAC),
as a complaint category, there has been a loss of over $3.7 billion reported to
the IC3, FBI said.
BEC, also known as
“cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam often targeting
employees with access to company finances and businesses working with foreign
suppliers and/or businesses that regularly perform wire transfer payments.
The same criminal
organisations that perpetrate BEC also exploit individual victims, often real
estate purchasers, the elderly, and others, by convincing them to make
wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the
criminals.
This is often
accomplished by impersonating a key employee or business partner after
obtaining access to that person’s email account or sometimes done
through romance, lottery, employment opportunities, fraudulent online vehicle
sales, and rental scams.
The FBI provides a
variety of resources relating to BEC through the IC3, which can be reached atwww.ic3.gov and victims are encouraged to
file a complaint online with the IC3 at bec.ic3.gov.
NAN
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