Published 14th Oct, 2021

By Abdullah Tijani

The United States Department of Justice has charged 11 Nigerians with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

According to a statement released by the agency on Wednesday, over 50 victims sent more than $9 million to the defendants through online fraud schemes.

“Victims were typically defrauded in one of two ways,” the statement reads in part. “In some instances, business email compromise fraud schemes were used to trick businesses into transferring funds to bank accounts the victims believed were under the control of legitimate recipients of the funds as part of normal business operations, when in fact the bank accounts were under the control of the defendants or their conspirators.

“In other instances, romance scams were used, primarily through electronic messages sent via email, text messaging, social media, or online dating websites, to deceive victims—many of whom were vulnerable older men and women—into believing they were in romantic relationships with fake identities, and then using false pretenses to cause the victims to transfer funds to bank accounts controlled by the defendants or their co-conspirators.”

The suspects arrested are:

S/N	NAME	AGE
01	Adebayo John	32
02	Oluwadamilola Akinpelu	26
03	Kazeem Raheem	29
04	Morakinyo Gbeyide	39
05	Warris Adenuga	26
06	Lateef Goloba	27
07	Samsondeen Goloba	29
08	Olawale Olaniyan	41
09	Olawoyin Peter Olarewaju	34
10	Emmanuel Oronsaye-Ajaye	30
11	Smart Agunbiade	28

However, the US Department of Justice noted in the statement that the indictments are mere allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

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