Oludayo Adeagbo, a British-Nigerian, has been sentenced to
seven years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar business email
compromise (BEC) scheme.
According to the US department of justice, Adeagbo, who also
goes by John Edwards and John Dayo, conspired with others to steal over $3
million from different entities in Texas, including local government entities,
construction companies, and a Houston-area college.
Adeagbo and conspirators also defrauded a North Carolina
university of more than $1.9 million.
The case began in August 2022 when Adeagbo and two other
Nigerian citizens, Donald Echeazu, 42, and Olabanji Egbinola, 44, were
extradited from the United Kingdom (UK), where they resided, to face charges of
conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The US department of justice said offences were committed in
North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
On April 8, Adeagbo pleaded guilty in two cases against him
in North Carolina and Texas for participating in a business email compromise
scheme, which is also called a “cyber-enabled financial fraud” scheme.
A business email compromise scheme can be initiated by
scammers creating fake accounts pretending to be companies that a business
regularly does business with.
Court records showed that Adeagbo and his co-conspirators
obtained information about significant construction projects throughout the
United States, including an ongoing multi-million-dollar project at a
university in North Carolina.
“To execute the scheme, Adeagbo, Echeazu, and others
registered a domain name similar to that of the legitimate construction company
in charge of the university’s project and created an email address that closely
resembled that of an employee of the construction company,” the department of
justice said.
“Using the fake email address, the fraudsters deceived and
directed the university to wire a payment of more than $1.9 million to a bank
account controlled by an individual working under the direction of Adeagbo and
his co-conspirators.”
Adeagbo and his co-conspirators pulled the same tricks in
Texas, targeting local government entities and universities pretending to be
construction companies. They received over $3 million from the scheme and $5
million overall.
Adeagbo has been ordered to pay $942,655.03 in restitution
and will serve seven years in prison.
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