By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Assets worth about $6 million belonging to six Nigerians have been frozen in the United States over cyber fraud, including romance scams of elderly women and widows.
It comes nearly a year after the U.S. authorities charged 80 people, 77 of them Nigerians, with participating in a conspiracy to steal $46 million, using business email fraud schemes and romance scams to con victims.
In the latest case, the fraudsters targeted American individuals and small businesses in an “elaborate scheme’’ of romantic fraud or by impersonating business executives, the BBC reports.
They allegedly received illegal money transfers and manipulated their victims to access their usernames, password and bank details.
Some victims of romance scams were targeted through emails and social media.
The US authorities say the majority of those affected were women, the elderly and those who had lost a spouse.
The whereabouts of the suspects is unknown, but authorities say all their property and interests in the US have been blocked. How much this amounts to is unclear.
American citizens have also been prohibited from dealing with the fraudsters.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the fraudsters had taken advantage of technological advancements to target vulnerable Americans.
Last year, the U.S. Treasury Crimes Enforcement Network said it had received more than 32,000 reports involving almost $9 billion in attempted theft schemes targeting U.S. financial institutions and their customers.
Historic fraud scheme
The 80 suspects charged in August 2019 were accused of using business email fraud schemes and romance scams to con victims – many of them elderly.
By that month, police had arrested 14 suspects across the U.S., 11 in Los Angeles alone. Others were thought to be in Nigeria.
Abuja said it would cooperate with the U.S., in what prosecutors said was one of the “largest cases of its kind in U.S. history”.
The FBI investigation was a major step to disrupt criminal networks, U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said.
“This case is part of our ongoing efforts to protect Americans from fraudulent online schemes and to bring to justice those who prey upon American citizens and businesses,” he added.
The FBI started investigating the case in 2016 in a single bank account but it later extended to cover multiple victims in the U.S. and around the world.
All the 80 defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and aggravated identity theft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California said.
66 suspects abroad
Two Nigerians, Valentine Iro and Chukwudi Christogunus Igbokwe, who were part of those arrested in the U.S., were named as co-conspirators working with others in the U.S. and in Nigeria, to obtain money from victims and then transfer it abroad.
They managed to fraudulently obtain $6 million in a conspiracy aimed at stealing $46 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office alleged.
The remaining 66 defendants were believed to be abroad, “with most them located in Nigeria”, the authorities said.
Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission Chairman, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said those named should be handed to the U.S. to face a trial.
“We… ask those accused in Nigeria to voluntarily turn themselves in to American authorities to clear their names, without which the Nigerian government should extradite them if relevant international treaties between the two governments are invoked,” she stressed.
The actions of a few should not tarnish all Nigerians, she insisted.
Posing as US soldier
The indictment alleged that the suspects used illicit money exchangers to move money to Nigeria, generally avoiding transferring the funds directly through banking institutions.
The authorities listed a total of 252 charges against the 80 suspects.
One of the victims, a Japanese woman named FK in court papers, was conned out of $200,000 after being contacted by a fraudster identifying themselves as U.S. Capt Terry Garcia who wanted to smuggle diamonds out of Syria.
She made 35 to 40 payments, receiving as many as 10 to 15 emails a day directing her to send money to accounts in the U.S., Turkey, and the United Kingdom through the captain’s many purported associates, the LA Times reported.