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In February 2021, $50,120 was withdrawn from Camtech’s Navy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 Another $60,000 was withdrawn in June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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