The United States government has indicted six Nigerians over an alleged internet fraud worth $6.3 million dollars. This was disclosed by the U.S Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, in a statement posted on the Treasury Department website on Tuesday.
The statement says the six persons; Richard Uzuh, Felix Okpoh, Nnamdi Benson, Micheal Olorunyomi, Alex Ogunshakin and Abiola Kayode, manipulated their the victims to gain access to their sensitive information and financial resources.
The statement says: “Today, in a coordinated action with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took action against six Nigerian nationals for conducting an elaborate scheme to steal over six million dollars from victims across the United States,” read the statement.
“The individuals designated today targeted U.S. businesses and individuals through deceptive global threats known as business email compromise (BEC) and romance fraud. American citizens lost over $6,000,000 due to these individuals’ BEC fraud schemes, in which they impersonated business executives and requested and received wire transfers from legitimate business accounts.
“Money was also stolen from innocent Americans by romance fraud, in which the designees masqueraded as affectionate partners to gain trust from victims”.
On the terms of sanctions placed on the suspects, the Secretary said,
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons that are in the possession or control of U.S. persons or within or transiting the United States are blocked, and U.S. persons generally are prohibited from dealing with them,”
The statement also revealed that the alleged crime was committed between 2015 and 2017.
Speaking on the issue, the U.S Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo said, “The U.S. will not tolerate such gross misuse of technology. The United States will use all of the tools at our disposal to defend the American people and businesses from malign actors that seek to target them, including cyber-enabled actors who prey on vulnerable Americans and businesses.”
