Three Nigerians have been extradited from the United Kingdom and have arrived in the United States to face trial over alleged participation in multi-million-dollar cyber fraud schemes.
The US Department of Justice has revealed the defendants to be Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo aka John Edwards or John Dayo, a 43-year-old Nigerian citizen and UK resident, Donald Ikenna Echeazu aka Donald Smith or Donald Dodient, and Olabanji Egbinola.
The culprits engaged in cyber-enabled business email compromise -BEC, fraud schemes in the Western District of North Carolina, Southern District of Texas, and Eastern District of Virginia, respectively.
The scams perpetrated by the defendants were aimed at unsuspecting victims in universities in North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, and attempted to cause more than $5 million in losses.
Adeagbo and Echeazu are charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and aggravated identity theft for defrauding a North Carolinian University of over $1.9 million via a business email compromise, -BEC scheme.
According to allegations contained in the indictment, from August 30, 2016, to January 12, 2017, Adeagbo and Echeazu partnered with various individuals to source information about important construction projects being done throughout the US, including the then ongoing multi-million-dollar project at the victim’s varsity.
The scheme was then executed as the culprits allegedly registered a domain name more like that of the legitimate construction company heading the University’s project and duplicated an email address resembling that of an employee at the construction company.
Fake email addresses were used to fool and persuade the University to wire cash of over $1.9 million to a bank account controlled by the individual working for the defendants. Upon receiving payments, the accomplices laundered the stolen cash through various financial transactions in an attempt to conceal the fraud.
Both the wire fraud conspiracy charge and the money laundering conspiracy charge each carries a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in jail. While an aggravated identity theft charge carries a compulsory two-year prison sentence consecutive to any other term imposed.
