Three young Nigerians are facing federal charges in the United States over a fraud scheme with losses of more than $6 million.
29-year-old Kosi Goodness Simon Ebo, James Junior Aliyu age 28 and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, aged 31, have been charged for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering related to a business email compromise (BEC) scheme with losses of more than $6 million.
The first of three defendants, Simon-Ebo was extradited from Canada to the United States and is scheduled to have his initial appearance on Friday at the District Court in Greenbelt before U.S. Magistrate Judge Amjel Quereshi.
According to the US Department of Justice, the seven-count indictment involves the defendants conspiring with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme. Specifically, the indictment alleges that the defendants and their co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses targeted by the conspirators.
The co-conspirators then allegedly sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails, which are emails with forged sender addresses, to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by perpetrators of the scheme, called “drop accounts.”
If convicted, the defendants each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud conspiracy, for the money laundering conspiracy, and for each count of wire fraud.
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