A Nigerian man has been convicted of a protracted email and wire fraud scheme in a Connecticut court that totaled $6 million in damages.
Okechuckwu Valentine Osuji, a Nigerian national has been handed an eight-year jail term for an email compromise scheme that spanned multiple nations, including the United States.
Osuji’s co-conspirators have been equally harried by international agencies looking to bring them to a court hearing. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, Royal Malaysia Police, and Malaysian Attorney General’s Chambers provided valuable assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Osuji.
John Wamuigah, one of the main parties allegedly responsible for contributing to the fraud scheme is also now subject to an extradition order from Malaysia.
Tolulope Bodunde, also a citizen of Nigeria, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on October 16 to two years in prison. The FBI New Haven Field Office and the Stamford Police Department investigated the Osuji case.
Nigerian national sentenced for email and wire fraud
The Justice Department report stated Osuji and his co-conspirators found individuals and businesses to contact via digital correspondence for the purpose of extracting money. They did so by fraudulently pretending to be a legitimate enterprise or at times a romantic partner.
A woman who testified at trial that she was “duped into sending her own personal savings and income, including Social Security checks, to an individual she believed to be her romantic partner, but who was in fact one of Osuji’s co-conspirators. The scam resulted in the near-total depletion of her life savings, caused her to declare bankruptcy, and led to the repossession of her house.”
Osuji and his co-conspirators allegedly used individuals who were forced to become “money mules.” They were used to take the swindled funds into their bank accounts as a holding area before sending the proceeds onto other accounts controlled by Osuji and his group.
The court report stated that the scam took place over a period of three years. It also stated that “numerous victims were tricked into transferring funds into bank accounts the victims believed were under the control of legitimate recipients as part of normal business operations. In reality, the bank accounts were controlled by Osuji and his co-conspirators. The victims included a Connecticut-based financial company, a Colorado-based lending company, an Alaska-based nonprofit performing arts organization, a New York-based food and beverage company, and many others.”
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