A39-year-old Nigerian, Okechukwu Valentine Osuji, was sentenced on Thursday in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, to eight years in prison for his involvement in a large-scale business email compromise (BEC) scheme.
The suspect operating across multiple countries, including the United States, and his co-conspirators defrauded numerous businesses and individuals by impersonating trusted entities in electronic communications.
According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Osuji and his team targeted victims across various sectors, including finance, non-profit arts organizations, and food services, using fraudulent email schemes to deceive recipients into transferring funds.
They exploited both witting and unwitting “money mules” to receive and transfer the stolen money, diverting the funds into accounts controlled by the fraudsters.
The victims of this scheme included businesses from Connecticut, Colorado, Alaska, New York, and beyond. Over the course of the operation, the conspirators were able to divert millions of dollars through fraudulent transactions, causing financial damage to their targets.
The scheme also involved the exploitation of elderly individuals through romance scams to serve as some of the unwitting money mules, including one woman who testified at trial that she was duped into sending her own personal savings and income, including Social Security checks, to an individual she believed to be her romantic partner, but who was in fact one of Osuji’s co-conspirators.
The scam resulted in the near-total depletion of her life savings, caused her to declare bankruptcy, and led to the repossession of her house.
Meanwhile, her personal bank account was also used to facilitate the fraud against one of the companies targeted by Osuji.
Osuji was arrested in Malaysia and extradited to the United States in 2022. On May 1, 2024, a jury in New Haven found Osuji guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
The statement stated, “As a result of the scheme, losses and intended losses totalled over $6million.” At his sentencing hearing, Osuji was ordered to pay restitution to his victims.
Osuji’s alleged co-conspirator, John Wamuigah, remains in Malaysia and is pending extradition proceedings. An indictment is merely an allegation, and Wamuigah is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Meanwhile, another co-conspirator, Tolulope Bodunde, also a citizen of Nigeria, pleaded guilty and was sentenced on October 16 to two years in prison.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Vanessa Roberts Avery for the District of Connecticut; and Special Agent in Charge Robert Fuller of the FBI New Haven Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI New Haven Field Office and the Stamford Police Department investigated the case.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, Royal Malaysia Police, and Malaysian Attorney General’s Chambers provided valuable assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Osuji.
Trial Attorney Lydia Lichlyter of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Neeraj N. Patel for the District of Connecticut are prosecuting the case.
