Nigerian jailed for four years over $1m cyber-fraud in US

Solomon Ekunke Okpe, a Nigerian, was given a four-year prison term in the United States for his involvement in online fraud schemes that preyed on US residents and banks and cost their victims up to $1 million.

The 31-year-old was sentenced to prison after being extradited from Malaysia, where he was arrested, to the United States to stand trial.

Okpe and his associates “devised and executed business email compromise (BEC), work-from-home, check-cashing, romance, and credit card scams” between 2011 and 2017, according to the US Department of Justice.

According to Infosecurity magazine, targeted victims included individuals, banks, and businesses in the US and other countries, who were subjected to email phishing attacks aimed at stealing login credentials and “other sensitive information.”

The DoJ described the scams as “intended to cause more than $1 million in losses to US victims” although it is not clear if the cyber-fraud gang achieved this nefarious goal.

Financial institutions named by the DoJ as victims include First American Holding Company and MidFirst Bank.

Okpe now joins his fellow gang member, Johnson Uke Obogo, behind bars.

Obogo was sentenced on March 20 to a year and a day in prison for his role in the scams, a considerably shorter tariff than Okpe’s.