Tuesday, July 16, 2024 -The Federal Bureau of Investigations has filed a 16-count criminal indictment against Kingsley Inegbedion and Efemena Igbe over Internet fraud and money-laundering allegations of $1.5 million.
According to the FBI in the indictment
filed on May 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of
Georgia, Atlanta Division, Messrs Inegbedion and Igbe perpetrated romance scams
and business email compromise posing as legit businesses to defraud innocent
American citizens between April 2020 and May 2023.
Mr Inegbedion, a network engineer who
ran training programmes for aspiring tech workers in Atlanta, was known
previously to law enforcement, documents said.
Some of the banks include HSBC, Citi
Bank, Synovus Bank, Navy Federal Credit Union Truist Bank, Associated Credit
Union and Georgia’s Own Credit Union.
“The sham corporate entities did not
have physical premises, earn legitimate income, or pay wages to employees,” the
FBI said in the indictment.
They asked victims to wire money to
these accounts which appeared legit and quickly distributed the fraudulent
funds into other accounts within and outside the U.S. in an attempt to conceal
the fraud.
In February 2021, $50,120 was
withdrawn from Camtech’s Navy Federal account number ending with 4893. Another
$60,000 was withdrawn in June 2021 from the same bank, but a different account
number ended with 4854, registered under Kingtech Global Auto.
The FBI also found a purchase of
$160,000 cashier’s cheque #4817 from Kingtech’s Truist account ending with 0619
in September 2022, among other fraudulent transactions.
At other times, the duo conspired
with unknown persons who directed victims through emails and other means to pay
into the fraudulent accounts.
Mr Igbe already fled to Nigeria after
security agents invited him for questioning before the indictment was filed
leaving Mr Inegbedion to answer and defend the charges preferred by the FBI.
The FBI is seeking a restitution of
funds and forfeiture of property obtained through the fraud scheme to the U.S.
government.
“Upon conviction of the offences
alleged in counts one through sixteen of this indictment, the defendants,
Efemena Igbe and Kingsley Inegbedion, shall forfeit to the United States of
America, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 982(a)(1), any
property, real or personal, involved in such offence, and any property
traceable to such property including, but not limited to, a money judgement,
that is, a sum of money in United States currency representing the amount of
property involved in the offence,” said the FBI statement.
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