Five Nigerians serving jail terms in US for cybercrime
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed security and law enforcement agencies to scale up efforts at cracking down individuals or organisations involved in cybercrime and transnational car theft.
A statement in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Information on Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the President also sent a strong message to the global community, affirming that Nigeria would not be a haven for illicit wealth from foreign countries.
The President hailed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for its recent handover of 53 vehicles and $180,300 to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to be returned to two Canadian citizens who were victims of cybercrimes perpetrated by some Nigerians.
Here are five Nigerians serving jail terms in the USA for cybercrime
1. Invictus Obi
Celebrated entrepreneur Obinwanne Okeke popularly known as Invictus Obi was handed a ten-year prison sentence on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, by a U.S. federal court for masterminding an $11 million cyber fraud on a British company.
Okeke was held in the US since August 2019 on charges of computer and wire fraud and had previously pleaded guilty.
“In April 2018, a Unatrac executive fell prey to a phishing email that allowed conspirators to capture login credentials,” according to the court statement.
“The conspirators sent fraudulent wire transfer requests and attached fake invoices. Okeke participated in the effort to victimize Unatrac through fraudulent wire transfers totaling nearly $11 million, which was transferred overseas,” the statement added.
He formally pleaded guilty to charges relating to $11 million computer-based fraud transacted between 2015 and 2019.
2. Hushpuppi
Rahman Abbas, a popular Instagram celebrity, known as Hushpuppi, Hush, or Ray Hushpupp is serving a sentence of 11 years in the US.
Hushpuppy, now convicted as a notorious fraudster, was sentenced by United StatesI, who also ordered him to pay $1,732,841 in restitution to two fraud victims.
He was sentenced in the United States District Judge Otis Wright to 11 years for conspiracy to launder money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm out of approximately $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution, and targeted to steal $124 million from an English Premier League club.
3. Abidemi Rufai
A United States district court on Monday September 26, 2022 sentenced Abidemi Rufai, a suspended aide of Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, to five years’ imprisonment for fraud.
The District Court in Western Tacoma in Washington jailed Rufai for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
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With the stolen identities, he attempted to steal nearly $2.4 million from the United States government, including approximately $500,000 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
Mr Rufai, 45, who pleaded guilty to the charges in May, was said to have succeeded in defrauding 12 US agencies of $600,000 paid out into bank accounts controlled by him.
4-5. Samuel and Samson Ogoshi
A US court on Friday, September 6, sentenced two Nigerian brothers, Samuel Ogoshi, 24, and Samson Ogoshi, 21, to 17 years and six months in prison.
They were sentenced for their involvement in a sextortion scheme that tragically led to the suicide of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay.
They sent DeMay a friend request on Instagram, pretended to be a girl his age, and flirted with him.
The brothers lured DeMay into sending them explicit images by pretending to be a girl his age and threatened to send his pictures to his friends if he did not send him money.
DeMay sent as much money as he could and pleaded with the scammers, threatening to kill himself if they spread the images.
“Good… Do that fast, or I’ll make you do it,” the brothers replied.
Read Also: Tinubu orders crackdown on cybercrime, transnational car theft
However, DeMay took his own life less than six hours after their initial conversation on March 25, 2022.
This case marks the first successful prosecution of Nigerians for sextortion in the U.S., highlighting a growing trend of such crimes linked to Nigeria.
The brothers were extradited to the US in August last year to face prosecution over numerous cases of sexual extortion of young men and teenage boys on social media linked to them.
They pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to exploit teenage boys in Michigan and across the US sexually.
