October 3, 2024 at 08:39AM
British-Nigerian men Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, 45, and Donald Ikenna Echeazu, 42, have been sentenced for email fraud schemes in the US, earning millions. Adeagbo was sentenced to seven years for affecting Texas and North Carolina organizations, while Echeazu received 18 months. Their scams involved construction projects and local government entities, resulting in hefty prison sentences and restitution orders.
From the provided meeting notes, it seems that two British-Nigerian men, Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo and Donald Ikenna Echeazu, were involved in serious business email compromise schemes in the US. This led to them defrauding local government entities, construction companies, and colleges and netting millions of dollars from these organizations.
Adeagbo was sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud campaigns affecting organizations in Texas and North Carolina, while Echeazu was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay $655,408.87 in restitution.
In North Carolina, it’s suggested that the university defrauded was Appalachian State, and the pair spent around six months setting up a scam that raked in $1.9 million by targeting university staff and tricking them into sending payments to the fraudsters instead of the contractor. The fraudsters used a domain similar to that of a legitimate construction company and an email from that domain to receive the payments, which were then laundered.
In Texas, between November 2016 and July 2018, Adeagbo and his accomplices carried out multiple BEC frauds, earning more than $3 million from construction companies, local government entities, and a college in Houston.
The tactics used in both schemes involved registering domain names similar to those of clients or customers of the victim organizations and tricking unsuspecting staff into sending payments to the fraudsters’ accounts.
Adeagbo has been ordered to serve one year of supervised release following his seven-year prison sentence and repay $942,655.03 in restitution.
Overall, this case demonstrates the commitment of law enforcement to pursue justice for the victims impacted by these schemes and to hold cybercriminals, regardless of their location, accountable for their actions.