Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States of America has declared six Nigerians most wanted for cyber crimes.
Their names were given as Michael Olorunyomi, Richard Izuchukwu Uzuh, Alex Afolabi Ogunsakin, Felix Osilama Okpoh, Abiola Ayorinde Kayode and Nnamdi Orson Benson.
They were accused of executing a business email compromise scheme that defrauded over 70 different businesses in the U.S., resulting in combined losses of over $6 million.
The gang’s leader, Uzuh is said to be hiding somewhere in Nigeria since October 19, 2016, when the district court of Nebraska, Omaha, US issued a Federal warrant for his arrest.
According to FBI poster declaring Uzuh wanted, he and his co-conspirators sent spoofed emails to thousands of U.S. businesses, requesting fraudulent wire transfers.
Uzuh allegedly worked with money launderers, romance scammers and others involved in BEC schemes to launder the proceeds of other crimes through a complex network of witting and unwitting people in the U.S. and abroad.
Meanwhile, Okpoh who was indicted three years later was accused of providing hundreds of bank accounts to Uzuh and other co-conspirators.
The accounts were used to receive fraudulent wire transfers running into $1million.
Okpoh was indicted 21 August with a warrant of arrest issued on 22 August.
Afolabi Ogunshakin, who was also declared wanted was similarly accused of providing bank accounts to Uzuh and gang, to receive the fraudulent wire transfer.
According to the FBI, Ogunshakin caught the bug of fraud, by staging his own BEC, after being an apprentice to Uzuh and other.
Like Okpoh, he was indicted on 21 August and a warrant issued for his arrest on 22 August.
Abiola Ayorinde Kayode, also on the FBI list was accused of providing bank accounts to Uzuh. He was also alleged to have conducted BEC and romance scams of his own.
He was indicted same day with Ogunshakin and Okpoh.
Nnamdi Orson Benson, the 5th member of the gang was also accused of making available bank accounts to the gang. He also staged his own scams too.
Michael Olorunyomi was not just a member of the six-man gang, he targeted vulnerable elders and widows in his scams.
He defrauded his victims of more than $1million and aided Uzuh’s group in providing bank accounts of his victims to be used for fraudulent wire transfers from other victims.
He was the last to be indicted on 13 November 2019 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, identity theft and access device fraud.
His warrant of arrest was issued on 14 November.
All the wanted Nigerians are believed to be resident in Nigeria.
FBI has urged whistleblowers to contact its Omaha, Nebraska field office, any local FBI office or the American embassy.
See their posts below;
