Nigerian Man Sentenced For Business Email Scam

A Nigerian man has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for participating in a business email scam that targeted thousands of victims worldwide.

Onyekachi Emmanuel Opara, 30, of Lagos, Nigeria, was sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud in Manhattan federal court. He was also ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and serve two years of supervised release.

The scam, which took place between 2014 and 2016, targeted thousands of victims in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Singapore. Opara and his co-conspirator, David Chukwuneke Adindu, attempted to defraud victims of over $25 million through emails that appeared to be from supervisors or third-party vendors.

Victims were tricked into transferring funds to specified bank accounts, which were then quickly withdrawn or transferred to other accounts controlled by scheme participants. In one case, a victim sent over $600,000 to bank accounts controlled by Opara after being instructed to do so by Opara’s online romantic partner, ‘Barbara.’

OPARA was arrested in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 22, 2016, and extradited to the United States on January 26, 2018. His co-conspirator, David Chukwuneke Adindu, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and ordered to pay approximately $1.4 million in restitution in December 2017.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and thanked Oath’s E-Crime Investigations Team, the National Prosecuting Authority for South Africa, the South African Police Service, and the United States Marshals Service for their assistance in the case.

The investigation is ongoing, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to work to bring those responsible for these types of scams to justice. As Berman noted, ‘The global reach of our Office and the FBI ensured that Opara will serve time in the United States for his crimes.’