Nigerians dominated a list of cybercriminals the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL) and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) tracked and arrested for participating in a wide range of illegal activities in the xDedic Marketplace on the dark web.

The xDedic Marketplace was a website on the dark web where cybercriminals sold login usernames, passwords, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and other stolen sensitive credentials on the internet. Buyers admitted the stolen data into various servers across the world and used them to commit tax fraud, advanced fee fraud, romance scams and ransomware attacks.

Of the 19 cybercriminals listed so far, eight are Nigerians or of Nigerian origin. Allen Levinson and Bamidele Omotosho were listed as Nigerians.

Olayemi Adafin, Olalekan Oyebanjo, Akinola Taylor, Oluwarotimi Ogunlana, Ibrahim Jinadu and Adedotun Olajumo all have ties to Nigeria but are currently residents of the United States and the United Kingdom.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Linked With the Dark Web Wanted to Defraud US Gov’t of $63m. He’s Been Sent to Prison

According to court documents seen by the US Department of Justice, the xDedic Marketplace administrators operated the website across a widely distributed international network and used cryptocurrency as a tool to conceal xDedic’s underlying servers and the identities of its users. Before the criminals were caught, xDedic offered more than 700,000 compromised servers for sale. Data stolen by the xDedic Marketplace came from victims working in many countries, accounting companies, law firms, local and federal government infrastructure, emergency services, call centers, major metropolitan transit authorities, pension funds, banks and universities.

At least 8,000 of the victims of xDedic came from Florida. The US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida (Tampa Division) seized xDedic’s domain names in January 2019. Law enforcement authorities in Belgium and Ukraine, EUROPOL, the National High Tech Crime Unit from the Dutch National Police, the German Bundeskriminalamt and the FBI worked together to dismantle the website’s infrastructure on the dark web, effectively ceasing xDedic’s operation.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINER: EFCC ‘Linked Naira Marley to the Dark Web’. Here’s What You Need to Know About the Internet’s Most Hidden Part

“In the years that followed the takedown of the xDedic Marketplace, the U.S. Attorney’s Office investigated and charged individuals involved in every level of the website’s operation, including its administrators, server sellers, and buyers. For example, Alexandru Habasescu and Pavlo Kharmanskyi were Marketplace administrators,” the DOJ wrote in a statement on Thursday.

“Habasescu, who resided in Chisnau, Moldova, was the lead developer and technical mastermind for the Marketplace, while Kharmanskyi, who lived in Kiev, Ukraine, advertised for the website, paid administrators, and provided customer support to buyers. Habasescu was taken into custody in the Spanish Canary Islands in 2022 and extradited to the United States, while Kharmanskyi was arrested at the Miami International Airport in 2019 as he attempted to enter the United States. Habasescu and Kharmanskyi were sentenced to 41 and 30 months’ imprisonment, respectively.

“Marketplace seller Dariy Pankov, a Russian national, was one of the highest sellers on the Marketplace by volume, listing for sale the credentials of more than 35,000 compromised servers located all over the world and obtaining more than $350,000 in illicit proceeds. Pankov’s criminal activities were facilitated by a powerful malicious software program he developed named ‘NLBrute,’ that was capable of compromising protected computers by decrypting login credentials. Pankov was taken into custody in the Republic of Georgia in 2022 and extradited to the United States. He was subsequently sentenced to 60 months in federal prison.

“Nigerian national Allen Levinson was a prolific buyer on the Marketplace who held particular interest in purchasing access to U.S.-based Certified Public Accounting firms. He used the information he obtained from those servers to file hundreds of false tax returns with the United States government, requesting more than $60 million in fraudulent tax refunds. Levinson was taken into custody in the United Kingdom in 2020 and extradited to the United States. He was subsequently sentenced to 78 months in federal prison.

“Many of the charged defendants are foreign nationals and hold citizenship in countries that do not extradite their nationals, requiring the United States to locate and extradite subjects from countries that do. As identified in the table below, to date, 17 defendants have been charged and/or extradited to the United States.”

Olufemi Odedeyi, a 42-year-old United Kingdom resident, and 41-year-old Oluwaseyi Shodipe are the most recent xDedic Marketplace traders charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Shodipe has also been charged with theft of government funds. US law enforcement is processing Odedeyi and Shodipe’s extradition from the United Kingdom. Odedeyi and Shodipe each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison.