US court sentences Nigerian to 15 years imprisonment for $10m fraud

A Federal High Court in, Houston, Texas, in the United States of
America (USA) has sentenced a Nigerian, Hammed Akinola, to 180
months (15 years) imprisonment for a $10million fraud.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner also sentenced Akinola’s
accomplice, a 53-year-old American, James Campbell, to 90 months in
prison.

According to a press release by the US Justice Department, the
judge handed the sentence on April 12, after both men pleaded
guilty.

They were found to have taken or attempted to take large sums of
money from roughly 45 victims, who thought they were sending their
money to a title company to close on a home.

Unknown to them, the money was fraudulently being transferred to
a bank in Houston controlled by the defendants.

Judge Hittner noted that the defendants “ruined many Americans’
lives”, while the banks took a large hit as well.

Both have been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a
U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near
future.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) conducted the investigation.

From on or about January 2016 through November 2017, Campbell
and Akinola were involved in an international wire fraud conspiracy
that consisted primarily of Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud
which targeted businesses and individuals that regularly perform
wire transfer payments.

They compromised legitimate business e-mail accounts through
social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct
unauthorized transfers of funds by international
co-conspirators.

The international co-conspirators hacked into the victims
accounts and sent what appeared to the victims to be legitimate
emails from banks or title companies.

The victims, tricked into thinking such emails were from the
bank or title companies, would then transfer the money to the
accounts the defendants controlled, not knowing they were
fraudulent emails.

Akinola was working with overseas conspirators who were
orchestrating the BEC victimization.

Those conspirators needed domestic bank accounts where they
could send the funds stolen from the BEC fraud.

Akinola and Campbell agreed to work together to open bank
accounts and to recruit individuals in and around the Houston area
to open bank accounts in order to receive the BEC wires.

Campbell and Akinola then recruited 20 other individuals who did
open bank accounts to receive fraudulent funds.

The proceeds of the fraud scheme were disbursed between the
account holders, Campbell, Akinola and international
accomplices.

In total, the Campbell and Akinola’s activity participating in
the scheme and laundering its proceeds resulted in victims’ of BEC
fraud transferring or attempting to transfer $10.3 million into to
accounts they controlled.

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!