In June, indictments were unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn, charging four defendants for their participation in a series of fraudulent business email compromise (BEC) schemes and related romance schemes that resulted in more than $50 million in losses by individuals and small businesses located within the Eastern District of New York and throughout the United States.
The defendants Animashaun Adebo, Idowu Ademoroti, Nelson Ojeriakhi and Noguan Marvellous Eboigbe, together with their network of co-conspirators, misappropriated victim funds and laundered them through shell company accounts in the United States and abroad, sometimes using unsuspecting middlemen, including escrow attorneys and other victims, to further obscure the audit trail and disassociate the funds from the frauds.
Adebo was arrested yesterday in Chicago, Illinois.
Ademoroti was arrested in June at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York. Ojeriakhi was arrested previously in Paris, France, and remains in custody pending the resolution of extradition proceedings. Adebo will be arraigned in the Eastern District of New York at a later date. Eboigbe remained at large as of June.
Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Patrick J. Freaney, Special Agent-in-Charge, United States Secret Service, New York Field Office (USSS), announced the arrests and charges.
“As alleged, from breaking hearts to breaking into email accounts, no scheme was too depraved for the defendants and their network of criminal associates to steal over $50 million from innocent victims in Brooklyn and throughout the country,” stated United States Attorney Peace.
Between April 2021 and March 2022, the defendants and their co-conspirators allegedly orchestrated a series of fraudulent BEC schemes and related romance schemes and laundered and received proceeds from the fraudulent schemes.
In each case, after the victims executed the wires in accordance with the fraudulent instructions, the transferred funds were misappropriated from the victims and sent to and through accounts controlled by the defendants and their co-conspirators. As described below, the defendants played varying roles in the schemes.
Animashaun Adebo, also known as “Kazeem” and “Kazeem Animashaun,” was charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to receive stolen funds and receipt of stolen funds. As alleged, Adebo conspired to perpetrate multiple internet-based fraud schemes on victims and directed others to launder the proceeds of those schemes through shell company accounts, through the purchase of luxury watches, and an illegal money exchange operation run by his co-defendant Ademoroti.
Adebo ultimately received fraudulent proceeds in corporate bank accounts located in Nigeria. If convicted, Adebo faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges, five years’ imprisonment on the conspiracy to receive stolen funds charge, and 10 years’ imprisonment on the receipt of stolen funds charge.
Idowu Ademoroti was charged with a money laundering conspiracy, operating an illegal money-transmitting business, and a conspiracy to receive stolen funds and receipt of stolen funds. As alleged, Ademoroti laundered and received fraudulent proceeds of the schemes perpetrated by Adebo and others through the operation of an illegal money exchange business in which he facilitated the trading of fraudulent dollar proceeds to individuals overseas in exchange for Nigerian naira.
If convicted, Ademoroti faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on the money laundering conspiracy charge, five years’ imprisonment on the illegal money transmitting business charge, five years’ imprisonment on the conspiracy to receive stolen funds charge, and 10 years’ imprisonment on the receipt of stolen funds charge.
Noguan Marvellous Eboigbe, also known as “Randall Olson,” “Martin Roberto,” and “Carlos Eduardo,” was charged with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, money laundering and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions over $10,000 for facilitating the flow of more than $10 million in fraudulent proceeds from victims to the defendants and their co-conspirators.
Using false identities, Eboigbe contacted law firms that provided escrow services and posed as a potential client. He told them he would send them funds for a business transaction and instructed them to wire them to specified accounts. However, the funds received by the attorneys were, in fact, fraudulent proceeds of the real estate and corporate BEC schemes described above and were sent unwittingly by the victims.
If convicted, Eboigbe, on the USSS Most Wanted list, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering charges and 10 years’ imprisonment on the unlawful monetary transactions charge.
Nelson Ojeriakhi, also known as “Ojeey Mami” and “Oba Millie,” was charged with wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy for sending spoof emails to unsuspecting victims to misappropriate millions of dollars from them in connection with the schemes described above. The defendants and their co-conspirators subsequently laundered the funds. Ojeriakhi was arrested in Paris, France, on April 18, 2023.
If convicted, Ojeriakhi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each wire fraud conspiracy and wire fraud charges.
A fifth co-conspirator, Franziska Von Greve-Dierfeld, was previously charged with money laundering conspiracy for receiving and disbursing fraudulent proceeds from the schemes described above in shell company accounts she created.
Von Greve-Dierfeld was arrested in May 2022 and pleaded guilty to charges concerning her conduct. Von Greve-Dierfeld served time in custody and, following the completion of her sentence, returned to Germany pursuant to a judicial order of removal from the United States.
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