Two Nigerians in US jailed for $2.4m cyber fraud

Two Nigerians, Chijioke Odimegwu and Harafat Mogaji, have been sentenced to a combined 189 months in the United States for their roles in an international cyber intrusion and fraud scheme.

The Department of Justice said in a statement on Tuesday that the two worked with a criminal syndicate to defraud American businesses of more than $2.4 million.

“They attacked business victims across the United States with email “spamming” and phishing campaigns to steal usernames and passwords for victims’ employee email accounts,” the statement read.

A district court in Iowa sentenced them to a combined total of 15 years (189 months) in US federal prison. Mr Odimegwu was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay $366,000 in restitution.

His accomplice, Mr Magaji, was sentenced to six years and ordered to pay $995,000 in restitution.

Both Nigerians lived and operated in Delaware. They were also members of the United States Air Force.

According to court documents and evidence presented during the sentencing proceedings, the pair spent nearly two years targeting businesses across the US through email-spamming and phishing campaigns.

The DOJ said the two, along with their criminal network, created spoofed email addresses designed to resemble those of victims or their business partners.

They then used the compromised accounts and fake addresses to communicate with businesses and redirect legitimate payments to bank accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy.

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“The stolen credentials, along with email addresses mimicking emails associated with the victim or its business partners, were used to communicate with their victims and redirect payments to and from the victims’ trusted business partners to accounts controlled by the defendants’ co-conspirators.”

The department said the two Nigerians fraudulently diverted more than $1.68 million belonging to a victim in Iowa City to a bank account in Chicago.

They also diverted more than $720,000 from a victim in Ohio.

The DOJ identified these as a few of the many attempts by the defendants to divert wire transfers involving businesses in Iowa and other parts of the country.

It also noted that they were taken into custody following sentencing.

It added that after completing their prison terms, the two will each serve three years on supervised release.