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Th United States Attorney, Susan Lehr has announced the extradition of Abiola Kayode, 37, from Ghana to the District of Nebraska, United States over an alleged $6m cyber fraud indictment.
According to the statement by the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska on Thursday, Kayode, who was on the FBI’s Most Wanted Cyber Criminal List, is alleged to have participated in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme from January 2015 to September 2016.
The BEC scheme defrauded businesses in the District of Nebraska and elsewhere of more than $6 million.
The case was filed in August 2019 in Omaha, Nebraska.
“In April 2023, law enforcement authorities in the Republic of Ghana arrested Kayode pursuant to a U.S. request for his extradition. Ghanaian authorities ultimately granted this request and surrendered Kayode to FBI special agents who brought him to the District of Nebraska.
“Kayode had an initial appearance on the Indictment on December 11, 2024. United States Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson ordered Kayode to remain detained pending trial.”
According to the indictment, Kayode’s co-conspirators posed as the chief executive officer, president, owner, or other executive of the targeted company.
Using e-mail accounts spoofed to make it appear as though they were from the company’s true business executive, Kayode’s co-conspirators was said to have directed business employees or recipients of the e-mail to complete wire transfers.
“The business employees, believing the requests were legitimate, complied with the wire transfer requests and wired the money as instructed by Kayode’s co-conspirators.”
It is alleged Kayode provided bank account information to the co-conspirators who sent the fraudulent e-mails, and which directed business employees to wire money to accounts controlled by Kayode and others.
“These bank accounts largely belonged to victims of internet romance scams, who were instructed by co-conspirators to transfer the funds to other bank accounts.”
Some of Kayode’s co-conspirators have already been convicted and sentenced.
