HOUSTON — Three men accused of operating a sophisticated overseas phishing scam in an attempt to steal millions of dollars from US targets have been extradited by the feds.
At least one of them targeted unsuspecting victims in Houston, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. They included a local college, which wasn't identified, local government entities and businesses.
Oludayo Kolawole John Adeagbo, aka John Edwards and John Dayo, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud in Texas. The 43-year-old is a Nigerian citizen but he lives in the United Kingdom, according to the DOJ.
"From November 2016 until July 2018, Adeagbo allegedly conspired with others to participate in cyber-enabled business email compromises in an attempt to steal more than $3 million from victims in Texas," the DOJ said in a press release.
They said Adeagbo and his co-conspirators registered domain names that looked similar to legitimate companies. They then sent emails pretending to be employees at those companies, according to the charges.
The suspects also allegedly sent emails to clients or customers of the companies they impersonated and deceived those customers into sending wire payments to bank accounts they controlled.
It's not clear if the fraud attempts were successful.
Adeagbo faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the charges in Texas.
The FBI Houston Cyber Task Force conducted the investigation with the assistance of the FBI Cyber and Criminal Investigative Divisions and law enforcement in the UK.
Adeagbo and Donald Ikenna Echeazu, aka Donald Smith and Donald Dodient, successfully defrauded a North Carolina university of nearly $2 million, according to the DOJ.
Olabanji Egbinola is charged with defrauding a university in Virginia of nearly $470,000.
In the last two cases, the suspects used a fake email account and posed as a construction company hired by the universities to do large jobs, the feds said. They then laundered the money overseas.
All three men were extradited in 2021 but their indictments weren't unsealed until recently after a UK High Court rejected their appeals.
According to the DOJ, the same criminal organizations behind these types of schemes also exploit individual victims, often the elderly, by convincing them to make wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by the criminals. They use romance, lottery and other scams to lure them in, according to the feds.
These predators are often members of transnational criminal organizations that have spread throughout the world.
Victims of fraud are encouraged to file a complaint online with the IC3 at bec.ic3.gov.
