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A federal prosecution of 252 charges, most of them Nigerians, has been accused of involvement in a plot to steal millions of dollars through various fraudulent schemes and launder funds by the government. money laundering bias based in Los Angeles. network.
The indictment was opened after police authorities arrested 14 defendants in the United States on Thursday morning, including 11 in the Los Angeles area.
Two defendants were already in federal custody on other charges and one of them was arrested earlier this week.
The remaining defendants are believed to be abroad, most of them being in Nigeria.
The indictment alleges that the 80 accused and others resorted to various online fraud schemes, including compromised e-mail fraud, scams and schemes targeting the elderly, to steal millions of dollars to the victims.
According to a criminal complaint also opened Thursday, co-conspirators based in Nigeria, the United States and other countries have contacted the main defendants in the indictment – Valentine Iro, 31 , of Carson, and Chukwudi Christogunus Igbokwe, 38, of Gardena, both Nigerian citizens – for bank accounts and money services likely to receive funds fraudulently obtained from victims.
Once the conspiracy members convinced the victims to send money under false pretenses, Iro and Igbokwe coordinated the receipt of funds and oversaw an extensive anti – money laundering network. money, according to the indictment of 145 pages.
The indictment and the criminal complaint allege that Iro and Igbokwe, who were among those arrested, were involved in schemes that resulted in the fraudulent transfer of at least 6 million people. dollars of funds obtained fraudulently – and that the general plot was responsible for the theft attempt of at least 40 million additional dollars.
Fraudsters have targeted victims in the United States and around the world, including individuals, small and large businesses, and law firms. Some of the conspiracy victims lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fraudulent schemes, and many were seniors.
"This case is part of our ongoing effort to protect Americans from fraudulent online schemes and to bring to justice those who attack American citizens and businesses," said the US Attorney. Nick Hanna. "Today, we have taken a major step to disrupt criminal networks that use BEC schemes, romantic scams and other fraud to hide their victims. This indictment sends a message that we will identify the perpetrators – no matter where they live – and we will stop the flow of ill-gotten gains. "
"Today's announcement highlights the tremendous efforts that organized crime groups are going to make to perpetrate the BEC maneuvers that target US citizens and their hard-earned badets," said Paul. Delacourt, deputy director of the FBI in Los Angeles. "Billions of dollars are lost every year and we urge citizens to be aware of these sophisticated financial schemes in order to protect themselves or their businesses from the risk of becoming unsuspecting victims. The FBI is committed to working with partner agencies around the world to continue to identify these cybercriminals and dismantle their networks. "
Iro and Igbokwe were essentially fraudulent brokers. According to the indictment, Iro and Igbokwe collected bank accounts, requested information on these accounts, pbaded on this information to co-conspirators worldwide and laundered the money obtained from victims, all in exchange for a reduction of stolen money. victims of various fraud schemes.
If a bank account with a specific business name was needed to induce a victim to make a payment, Iro and Igbokwe would often coordinate with "money mules" to open accounts that could receive the funds obtained, according to court documents. In addition to making the fictitious business name look like a legitimate business, conspiracy members regularly filed fictitious business identity statements with the Los Angeles County Registrar / Registrar's Office. the opening of fraudulent accounts.
Once a victim has deposited funds in a bank account or money services account, Iro and Igbokwe would have apparently coordinated with others to further whiten it. Conspiracy members sometimes transfer funds to other bank accounts under their control; in other cases, they simply withdrew funds in the form of cash or negotiable instruments such as bank checks.
When stolen funds were withdrawn in cash, defendants frequently used illicit exchangers to transfer funds abroad, usually avoiding the transfer of funds directly through the banking institutions, according to the 39, indictment. To do this, Iro and Igbokwe co-ordinated the transfer of funds from a victim of a fraudulent bank account she controlled to US bank accounts belonging to illicit funds exchangers. In turn, these interchanges used a Nigerian banking application to transfer other funds in naira (₦), Nigeria's currency, from Nigerian bank accounts that they controlled to Nigerian bank accounts specified by Iro and Igbokwe. . This method was used to transfer millions of dollars to Nigerian co-conspirators without directly transferring funds abroad. The indictment alleges that Jerry Ikogho, 50, of Carson (arrested on Sunday), and Adegoke Moses Ogungbe, 34, of Fontana, are among those who served as illegal money-changers for the plot.
Each of the 80 accused named in the indictment is charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to launder money and aggravated identity theft. A number of accused also face charges of fraud and money laundering.
In addition, Iro, Igbokwe, Ikogho, Ogungbe and three other defendants – Izuchukwu Kingsley Umejesi, 30, of Los Angeles, Tityaye Marina Mansbangura, 33, of Palmdale, and Obi Madekwe, 31, of Nigeria – are accused of leading illegal money transfer activities. . Ogungbe and Mansbangura were also among those arrested and Umejesi is a fugitive currently wanted by the authorities.
Iro, Igbokwe and Chuks Eroha, 39, face additional charges for attempting to destroy their phones when the FBI executed a search warrant in July 2017. Iro is also accused of lying to the FBI during An interview conducted during the search. The complaint alleges that when the FBI arrived to carry out the court-authorized search in Iro's apartment in Carson, Iro broke his phone in half, while Igbokwe and Eroha threw a phone from the window of the bedroom of the apartment. While Iro claimed that he had already broken the phone during an argument with his wife, the complaint explains how the FBI was able to determine that the phone was operational until a few seconds later. that the FBI knocked on the door of the Iro apartment to execute the search warrant. It is believed that Eroha escaped to Nigeria shortly after the FBI executed the warrant.
The charges contained in the criminal complaint and the indictment are only charges and the accused are presumed innocent until and until their guilt has been established by a tribunal.
This survey is conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and the United States State Department have provided substantial badistance during the investigation.
Several agencies provided support during today 's update or investigation, including the US Postal Inspection Service, the Domestic Security Investigations of the United States and the United States. US Immigration and Customs Services, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, US Customs and Border Protection, Ventura County Prosecutor's Office and California. Commission of franchise taxes.
Many FBI legal attachés provided badistance throughout the investigation, as did the International Affairs Bureau of the Criminal Division and foreign authorities around the world. In particular, the FBI and the US Attorney General's Office are thanking the UK's National Crime Agency and the Prosecutor General's Office in Osnabrück, Germany, for their contributions.
Assistant Attorneys for the United States, Anil J. Antony and Joseph B. Woodring of the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section, have instituted proceedings.
In 2017, the FBI released a report on the ramp-up of BEC systems and published a summary of the WireWire operation of 2018, which was an international effort to stem international scams related to BEC systems. An FBI public service announcement warning of the dangers of BEC systems encourages companies to "trust, but check."
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