Kingsley Inegbedion, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his alleged involvement in a $1.5m fraud scheme.
According to a 16-count indictment, filed on May 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, Inegbedion and his accomplice, Efemena Igbe, were alleged to perpetrate romance scams and business email compromise, posing as legitimate businesses between April 2020 and May 2023.
“The sham corporate entities did not have physical premises, earn legitimate income, or pay wages to employees,” the FBI said in the indictment.
The FBI is seeking restitution of funds and forfeiture of property obtained through the fraud scheme.
“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,” read the FBI statement.
Inegbedion was taken into custody after a grand jury returned the indictment, while Igbe is reportedly at large in Nigeria.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday brokered a renewed strategic alliance towards tackling the menace of internet crimes and other waves of emerging and old crimes that are of mutual interests to Nigeria and the United States.
The development came when Christopher Wray, FBI’s Director led a team of the Bureau’s top officials on a visit to the EFCC’s Executive Chairman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede at the Commission’s Abuja corporate headquarters.
In his remark at the meeting, Wray expressed delight at the bond that has existed over the years between the EFCC and FBI and called for its upscaling in the face of common crime threats that confront Nigeria and the US.
“Thank you for your hospitality and in particular for the partnership that exists between the FBI and the EFCC across a wide range of threats that we face together. We have had a relationship over the years and this is a reflection of how stronger than ever we are looking forward to taking our partnership to higher and higher levels in tackling threats that affect the people of Nigeria and the people of the United States. We have had close partnerships in shared values and focus and I want to say thank you for the wonderful partnership,” he said.
Responding, Olukoyede expressed appreciation to the FBI for being the EFCC’s personnel and institutional capacity building benefactor over the years and expressed optimism that the collaboration between the two agencies would be taken a notch higher.
“We value the partnership between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI. Over the years, this partnership has existed and it is for mutual benefits.
“We have to acknowledge that we have benefitted from your manpower and capacity development programmes, which have added value to the capacity of our operatives and our Academy. We also want to thank you for the technical support that you have provided over the years for the EFCC and by extension, Nigeria,” he said.
While suing for the enhancement of the collaboration and strategic partnership, Olukoyede noted that doing so was in mutual interest of Nigeria and the US, especially as criminality has become borderless.
“Some of the crimes we fight are borderless crimes, so it is extremely important for law enforcement agencies across the world to come together to collaborate. Law enforcement agencies must collaborate more. Our activities must be borderless so that we will be able to challenge the activities of the bad guys”, he said.
Assuring Wray and his team of the Commission’s commitment to collaboration with the American agency, he said that “we are willing to continue and develop ideas that would be of mutual benefit to both agencies and ensure that the issue of cybercrime will take utmost priority in our scale of preference and also ensure that sextortion that has become a major challenge to us is taken very seriously”.
Olukoyede also used the meeting to spotlight the new direction of the Commission under his leadership. He pointed out that tackling public corruption was at the zenith of the policy directives.
“One of our major problems in Nigeria is public corruption. Upon my assumption of office I shared my three major policy directives with the entire nation. I promised to use the instrumentality of the anti-corruption fight to stimulate the economy, in other words to ensure that businesses that are registered in Nigeria play by the rules.
“And we have shown in some of our activities that we were looking into a lot of government agencies as to how they carry out their activities particularly in the area of contract and procurement.
“We also promised the nation that we are going to follow the rule of law. I believe in results but I also believe that the way you achieve the result matters. I promised the nation that we are going to do it right.
“Thirdly is to use the activities of the EFCC to improve the international image of Nigeria and that is why we are vigorously pursuing the issue of cyber criminals because some of the activities of these folks have dented Nigeria’s image in the global space”, he said.
Olukoyede noted that achieving the shift in paradigm called for new dynamism and mechanisms in the tools of the anti-corruption fight.
“The major thrust is to use the instrument of prevention to tackle corruption in the country. The EFCC has done well over the years in the areas of investigation and prosecution, but upon my assumption of office, I decided rather to look at the sources and causes of these problems. We will not just enforce but also look at prevention, since it is also within our mandate. So we decided to set up a new department, called Fraud Risk Assessment and Control”, he said.
He expressed optimism that contract and procurement fraud would soon be a thing of the past as “we are going to ensure e-procurement in the entire nation so that it would be easy for us to track the execution of projects. That is one of the key innovations we have brought into our activities and we are really going to follow it through.”
The EFCC boss also used the occasion to highlight the centrality of appropriate public communication in the overall success of the anti-graft fight. “We are also drumming up awareness to our public enlightenment programmes. We have just launched our own FM radio station where we drum up awareness for our activities because of the misconceptions out there. The radio station is for the public to know what we are doing”.
The EFCC boss commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for mustering strong political will to fight corrupt practices. “The President’s commitment is strong against corruption and this has been of immense motivation for us”, he said.
Other officials on the FBI delegation include: Charles Smith Jnr, Sydney Schaur, Joshua James Moldt, William Michael Miller, Vanessa M. Tibbits, William B. Stevens, Leigha Ramson, Sofie Admire Sosenzweig and Dr. Jim Oscar.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday disclosed Nigerian fraudsters have caused tragic deaths of Americans in the United States.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports FBI Director, Christopher Asher Wray made the disclosure in a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.
FBI is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States of America, and its principal federal law enforcement agency.
It was gathered that the FBI Director and his team are in the country to enhance the “outstanding partnership” that exists between the government of Nigeria and the government of the United States.
The FBI Director lauded President Tinubu for supporting the growing partnerships between various agencies of government and the FBI in order to protect the citizens of both countries.
”We appreciate the President’s vision in countering terrorism in the region, which is a dangerous threat, not only to the countries in the region but also to the United States.
”We appreciate your vision in re-engineering the role of the Office of the NSA to effectively coordinate efforts on counter-terrorism, and this has already started to bear fruits in terms of the success you are recording against ISIS in West Africa and other terrorist groups.
”We appreciate your support and collaboration on cyber-enabled crimes and sextortion, which has unfortunately resulted in a few tragic deaths in the United States.
”I want to assure you of our support, whether it is on counter-terrorism, cyber-enabled crimes, kidnapping, joint investigations, and intelligence sharing. Our relationship with Nigeria is a very important one,” Wray said.
Speaking when he received the FBI Director, President Tinubu acknowledged that poverty is generally believed to be a driver of criminal activities in the country.
Tinubu called for stronger collaboration between Nigeria’s law enforcement agencies and the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the fight against cybercrime, terrorism, and other related crimes.
Security chiefs who attended the meeting included the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun; Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi; and Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Others are Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd); Chief of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Major-General Emmanuel Undiandeye; Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Olanipekun Olukoyede; and the National Coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Major-General Adamu Laka.
What President Tinubu told visiting FBI Director
President Tinubu described the presence of the FBI Director alongside his team in Nigeria as a recognition of the enduring partnership between Nigeria and the United States in the fight against financial crimes and terrorism.
”It is an honour for me to receive Director Christopher Wray, the leader of an organization that has demonstrated consistent procedural sophistication and a reputation for excellence over several years.
“Your visit conveys the importance of Nigeria and Nigerian partnership in the work of America’s law enforcement institutions and vice-versa.
“For us, it is a recognition of what stage we are at, who we are, and the level of interest both countries share in eliminating crimes locally and globally.
”We cannot achieve this important feat of eliminating crimes without collaboration. Incidentally, as the Chairman of ECOWAS, Nigeria is also collaborating with other West African countries to fight economic and other related crimes,” the President said.
President Tinubu told the FBI Director that his administration has prioritised education as a tool against poverty, which is generally believed to be a driver of criminal activities.
”We are working hard to eliminate terrorism, cybercrimes, sextortion, and I am glad that we have a good number of agencies that are involved in reducing these crimes to the barest minimum, and they are also well represented at this meeting,” the President said.
Noting that no single country can combat financial crimes in isolation, President Tinubu called on the United States to support developing countries with the requisite technology and knowledge transfer required to combat complex international crimes.
Nigerian citizen extradited from Germany to face charges over attempt to steal $25 million in U.S. benefits
Allegedly successfully obtained over $2.4 million in pandemic unemployment benefits
One of two Nigerian citizens residing in Canada, who allegedly defrauded the pandemic unemployment benefit programs in multiple states, made his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Tacoma this afternoon at 2:00 PM. Sakiru Olanrewaju Ambali, 45, was arrested in February 2023, in Frankfurt, Germany, as he traveled back to Canada from Nigeria. Ambali had been detained in Germany pending extradition. He arrived in the Western District of Washington yesterday afternoon.
Ambali and codefendant Fatiu Ismaila Lawal, 45, are accused of using the stolen identities of thousands of Americans to submit over 1,700 claims for pandemic unemployment benefits to over 25 different states, including Washington State.
According to the indictment, Lawal and Ambali used the stolen personal information of thousands of U.S. taxpayers and residents to file fraudulent claims for COVID-19 pandemic assistance and false tax returns seeking refunds. In total, the claims sought approximately $25 million, but the conspirators obtained approximately $2.4 million, primarily from pandemic unemployment benefits.
The co-conspirators allegedly submitted claims for pandemic unemployment benefits to more than 25 states including New York, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, California, and Washington. Using 13 Google accounts they filed some 900 claims. The co-conspirators also allegedly established four internet domain names that they then used for fraud – creating some 800 different email addresses that were used for fraud.
Lawal and Ambali allegedly filed over 2,300 fraudulent income tax returns seeking over $7.1 million in tax refunds. The IRS caught most of the fraud and paid only about $30,000 in fraudulent refunds.
The co-conspirators also attempted to use the stolen American identities for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) to defraud the Small Business Administration.
According to the indictment, the co-conspirators had the proceeds of their fraud sent to cash cards or to “money mules” who transferred the funds according to instructions given by the co-conspirators. They also allegedly used stolen identities to open bank accounts and have the money deposited directly into those accounts for their use.
Lawal and Ambali are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, ten counts of wire fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft.
Lawal remains in Canada, pending extradition.
The conspiracy and wire fraud counts are punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Aggravated identity theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum two years in prison to run consecutive to any other prison time imposed in the case.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The National Unemployment Fraud Task Force provided a lead on this case to the investigative team in Western Washington. The case was investigated by the FBI with assistance from U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG). Also contributing to the investigation were Washington State Employment Security Division (ESD), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), and the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Cindy Chang and Seth Wilkinson of the Western District of Washington. DOJ’s Office of International Affairs is assisting.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.
The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.
Nigerian sprinter, Divine Oduduru has been suspended for doping and risks being banned for six years by World Athletics.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the Athletics Integrity Unit (AlU) disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
According to AIU, Oduduru has been notified of the suspension.
The statement reads: “The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has notified Divine Oduduru of two potential Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVS) and is seeking a six-year ban against the Nigerian.
“The sprinter has been notified of potential ADRVs for possession (Rule 2.6 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules; ADR) and/or use or attempted use of multiple Prohibited Substances (Rule 2.2 ADR). He has been provisionally suspended immediately.
“These alleged violations stem from an AIU investigation based on information in a criminal charge brought against US-based “naturopathic” therapist Eric Lira, on 12 January, 2022, by the United States Department of Justice under the Rodchenkov Act.
“Lira is alleged to have supplied performance- enhancing drugs to athletes before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (delayed until summer 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic).
“The complaint against Lira provides specific information regarding persons identified as ‘Athlete 1’ and ‘Athlete 2’.
“In February 2022, a sole arbitrator of the AIU Disciplinary Tribunal concluded that they were “comfortably satisfied” that ‘Athlete 1’ was Oduduru’s team-mate, Blessing Okagbare, and banned her from the sport for ten years, which was increased to an 11-year ban in June 2022 following further charges brought by the AIU.
“Based on the information in the complaint, including text conversations imaged from Okagbare’s mobile phone by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and further evidence obtained from the AIU investigation, the AIU alleges that Oduduru is ‘Athlete 2’ identified in the complaint.
“As the process is ongoing, the AIU will make no further comment on the matter at this time”.
Bob Bauer, a personal lawyer to the President of the United States, Joe Biden, has said that no classified documents were found during the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) search of his client’s beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware on Wednesday.
The FBI searched the house of US 46th President (Biden) after documents with classified markings from the Obama administration were found in his Wilmington residence and a Washington think tank office.
In a statement, Bauer said: “The DOJ’s planned search of the president’s Rehoboth residence, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the president’s attorneys, has concluded,” Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer, said, adding that the search was conducted from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
“Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as vice president.”
President Joe Biden
The FBI’s search of Biden’s Rehoboth beach house came amid ongoing classified documents investigations. A source familiar with the matter said no warrant was involved and the search was consensual.
Earlier Wednesday, Bauer said in a statement that the Department of Justice was conducting the search with Biden’s full support and cooperation.
“Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate. The search today is a further step in a thorough and timely DOJ process we will continue to fully support and facilitate. We will have further information at the conclusion of today’s search,” Bauer asserted.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the National Archives, which is responsible for retaining presidential records, declined to comment on the search of the president’s Rehoboth home.
The FBI previously searched the offices of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in mid-November after classified documents were discovered there, NBC News reported Tuesday.
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House counsel’s office, in taking questions from reporters outside the White House repeatedly, said that the president and his team have been fully cooperative with the Justice Department.
Sams, in leaving several questions unanswered, said the White House wants to “be careful” about sharing information that is part of an ongoing investigation.
“We’re gonna continue to try to provide information as this investigation goes on and ensure that you guys have the ability to share with the American people sort of the information that is important for them to see as the president’s cooperating with this investigation,” Sams explained.
News of the FBI’s search of Biden’s beach house comes as former President Donald Trump has been under investigation after classified documents were found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
FBI agents executed a search at Trump’s Florida estate last year and found more than 100 classified documents, including some marked top secret.
Last December, two more documents with classified markings were found at a Florida storage facility not far from Mar-a-Lago and were turned over to the FBI.
A “small number” of classified documents were also discovered last month at former Vice President Mike Pence’s Indiana home, the former vice president’s lawyer, Greg Jacob, said in a letter sent to the National Archives.
It was gathered that Pence had asked “outside counsel” to look for records bearing classified markings.
Reacting to news of the FBI’s search of Biden’s beach home, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it’s good that the president is cooperating with the inquiry.
“I’m sure that he says, ‘Hey, everything I have is fair game.’ I think that’s very open, very honest. And that’s great,” Manchin said. “I don’t think there’s any resistance, is there? I would think, if anything, he’d probably encourage it to be done.”
Asked about the search of Biden’s home for classified documents, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said the first priority must be to “make sure that they don’t put this country at risk.”
“The Intel Committee at a minimum should know what’s in those documents — not just Biden’s documents but Pence’s documents, Trump’s documents,” Tester said.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., pointed out that he is working with ranking member, Jamie Raskin, D-Md., about a bipartisan bill to overhaul the system involving classified documents for former White House officeholders.
Comer said he wants “a set pattern for how documents” leave the president’s and vice president’s offices as they enter private life and a way to tackle over-classification, in part by revamping the governmental process for those decisions.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) recalls that last month, he asked the White House for the release of visitors logs from Biden’s home in Delaware.
The White House Counsel’s Office said it is reviewing Comer’s request related to Biden’s handling of classified documents and signaled it plans to cooperate to an extent.
Raskin on Tuesday demanded the Secret Service provide information about visitors to Trump’s and Pence’s personal residences since they left office in light of the “mishandling of sensitive, highly classified documents.”
In a news release, Raskin described the request as “similar” to the requests by Comer last month focusing on classified documents discovered at Biden’s home in Wilmington.
United States Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, Chris Wray, on Friday, raised national security concerns about TikTok.
He warned that control of the popular video-sharing app is in the hands of a Chinese government “that doesn’t share our values.”
Wray said the FBI was concerned that the Chinese had the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.”
He also asserted that China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations.
“All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” Wray told an audience at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Those concerns are similar to the ones he raised during congressional appearances last month when the issue came up. And they’re being voiced during ongoing dialogue in Washington about the app.
Concerned about China’s influence over TikTok, the Trump administration in 2020 threatened to ban the app within the U.S. and pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. company. U.S. officials and the company are now in talks over a possible agreement that would resolve American security concerns, a process that Wray said was taking place across U.S. government agencies.
“As Director Wray has previously said, the FBI’s input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government.
“While we can’t comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns and have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in an emailed statement.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. The TikTok statement Friday noted that ByteDance is a private company and that “TikTok Inc., which offers the TikTok service in the United States, is a U.S. company bound by U.S. laws.”
At a Senate hearing in September, TikTok Chief Operating Officer, Vanessa Pappas, responded to questions from members of both parties by saying that the company protects all data from American users and that Chinese government officials have no access to it.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement Monday that the FBI was searching his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, in what he described as a “raid.”
It was not immediately clear why agents were present at his Palm Beach summer home, but Trump said the property was “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” He added that the agents broke open his safe.
“After working and cooperating with the relevant government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” he said.
Executing a search requires the signoff of a federal judge, who issues a warrant based upon evidence of a potential crime.
It is unlikely that such a high-profile warrant to search the personal residence of a former president would be sought without top Justice Department officials reviewing the evidence and approving the request.
Trump was not at his Palm Beach estate during the search and was in the New York City area, according to a person familiar with the situation.
In his statement, Trump called the search an attempt to influence the midterm elections in November and compared it to the Nixon campaign bugging the Democratic National Committee during the Watergate scandal.
Several former Trump administration officials have testified before a grand jury recently as part of the Justice Department investigation into the events around the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
But it was not immediately clear whether the search is connected to that or to other Trump-related investigations, including the potential destruction and removal of presidential records that took place when he left office.
Earlier this year, the National Archives and Records Administration recovered 15 boxes of official records from Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, some of which were reportedly labeled classified or top secret, others of which were reportedly destroyed.
The agency, which is tasked with preserving the records for the public under the Presidential Records Act, also asked the Justice Department to determine whether charges were warranted.
“The scene was set for this kind of dramatic move when it became clear Trump had taken documents with him to Mar-a-Lago,” said Timothy A. Naftali, a presidential historian at New York University.
The potential punishment for improperly concealing or destroying presidential records is a fine, up to three years imprisonment and having to “forfeit his office and be disqualified from holding any office under the United States.”
Trump has strongly indicated he will seek another term, with an announcement expected as soon as in the next few weeks.
The U.S. attorney’s offices in Washington and the Southern District of Florida did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Attorney General Merrick Garland was appointed by President Joe Biden and Trump appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray.
A spokesman for the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol declined to comment.
The committee’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election is ongoing, with hearings expected to resume in September.
The Justice Department has been tight-lipped about the target of its ongoing investigation, though Garland has emphasised that no one will be above the law.
A White House official said on background that the administration was not informed of the search in advance.
Biden has said little about the Jan. 6 hearings and has been careful not to comment about his predecessor’s potential legal liability, stating repeatedly that the Justice Department operates with complete independence.
Trump’s immediate politicisation of the raid is no surprise considering his past responses to a special counsel investigation, two impeachments and the other ongoing federal inquiries into his business dealings.
He is no longer constitutionally immune to prosecution as a sitting president.
