A 37-year-old Nigerian, Abiola Kayode, was extradited from Ghana to the District of Nebraska, United States, following his indictment on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The indictment, filed in August 2019 in Omaha, Nebraska, was pursued after a long investigation into fraudulent activities.
According to United States Attorney, Susan Lehr, Kayode was apprehended by the law enforcement authorities in Ghana in April 2023, following a formal request from the United States for his extradition.
The Ghanaian government granted the extradition request, and Kayode was subsequently handed over to FBI special agents, who transported him to Nebraska.
Kayode made his first appearance in federal court on December 11, 2024, before United States Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson.
In a statement released on Thursday, by U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska, stated that Kayode, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Cyber Criminal List, is alleged to have participated in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme from January 2015 to September 2016.
The BEC scheme defrauded businesses in the District of Nebraska and elsewhere of more than $6 million.
According to the indictment, Kayode’s co-conspirators posed as the chief executive officer, president, owner, or other executive of the targeted company.
The statement read, “Using e-mail accounts spoofed to make it appear as though they were from the company’s true business executive, Kayode’s co-conspirators directed business employees or recipients of the e-mail to complete wire transfers.
“The business employees, believing the requests were legitimate, complied with the wire transfer requests and wired the money as instructed by Kayode’s co-conspirators.
“It is alleged Kayode provided bank account information to the co-conspirators who sent the fraudulent e-mails, and which directed business employees to wire money to accounts controlled by Kayode and others.
“These bank accounts largely belonged to victims of internet romance scams, who were instructed by co-conspirators to transfer the funds to other bank accounts.
It was gathered that some of Kayode’s co-conspirators have already been convicted and sentenced.
Meanwhile, Adewale Aniyeloye, one of the fraudsters sending the spoofed e-mails to the target business, was sentenced in February 2019 to 96 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,570,938.05 in restitution.
