In a fresh case, the United States Government has charged 15 individuals, 4 of which are Nigerians, to a Federal Court in Manhattan for a purported $18 million cyber and bank related fraud case. The four Nigerian defendants include: Oladayo Oladokun, Farouk Kukoyi, Baldwin Osuji, and Henry Ogbuokiri.
This disclosure was made in a statement released by the US department of Justice. Further information culled from this statement showed that only five out of these ten individuals have been apprehended, while the remaining ten are on the run. However, law enforcement agents from different law enforcement bureaux like the Homeland Security, the US Immigration and Customs, the USSS and the NYPD, are all involved in a joint investigation.
These defendants are yet to go on trial, and when they eventually do and are found guilty, would likely get a sentence of 30 years each in a maximum prison.
It can be recalled that a similar incident happened in September, when nearly 300 Nigerians were arrested in an internationally coordinated law enforcement operation targeted at established internet scam crews notorious for Business Email compromise schemes and ‘romance emails’.