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Defendant Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Role in Multimillion-Dollar Business Email Compromise Scheme
A 45-year-old dual citizen of Nigeria and the United Kingdom has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar business email compromise (BEC) scheme targeting educational institutions and businesses in Texas and North Carolina.
Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, also known as John Edwards and John Dayo, was extradited from the United Kingdom in August 2022 to face criminal charges filed in Charlotte and in Houston. On April 8, Adeagbo pleaded guilty to one count each of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his criminal conduct in both cases.
According to court documents, Adeagbo conspired with others to participate in multiple cyber-enabled BEC schemes in an attempt to steal more than $3 million from victim entities in Texas, including local government entities, construction companies, and a Houston-area college. Adeagbo and his conspirators also defrauded a North Carolina university of more than $1.9 million.
The BEC scheme, also referred to as “cyber-enabled financial fraud,” is a sophisticated scam that often targets individuals, employees, or businesses involved in financial transactions or that regularly perform wire transfer payments. Fraudsters are usually part of larger criminal networks operating in the United States and abroad.
Adeagbo and his conspirators registered domain names that looked similar to legitimate companies and sent emails from those domains pretending to be employees at those companies to clients or customers of the companies they impersonated and deceived. The scammers then used the compromised or fake email accounts to send false wiring instructions to the targeted businesses or individuals, to dupe the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by perpetrators of the scheme.
The North Carolina BEC Scheme involved Adeagbo, his codefendant, Donald Ikenna Echeazu, 42, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United Kingdom extradited to the United States, and others defrauding a North Carolina university of more than $1.9 million via a BEC scheme from Aug. 30, 2016, to Jan. 12, 2017. The scheme involved Adeagbo and his co-conspirators obtaining information about significant construction projects occurring throughout the United States, including an ongoing multi-million-dollar project at the victim University.
Adeagbo and his co-conspirators registered a domain name similar to that of the legitimate construction company in charge of the University’s project and created an email address that closely resembled that of an employee of the construction company. Using the fake email address, the fraudsters deceived and directed the University to wire a payment of more than $1.9 million to a bank account controlled by an individual working under the direction of Adeagbo and his co-conspirators. Upon receiving the payment, Adeagbo and his co-conspirators laundered the stolen proceeds through a series of financial transactions designed to conceal the fraud.
Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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