A 37-year-old Nigerian, Abiola Kayode, who had been on the FBI’s Most Wanted Cyber Criminal List, has been extradited from Ghana to Nebraska, United States.
This followed a conspiracy to commit wire fraud indictment filed against him in August 2019.
According to a statement from the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska on Thursday, Kayode was arrested in April 2023 by Ghanaian authorities.
After a formal U.S. request for extradition, he was handed over to FBI special agents who brought him to Nebraska.
He appeared in court on December 11, 2024, before United States Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson, who ordered his detention pending trial.
Kayode is accused of participating in a business email compromise scheme between January 2015 and September 2016 that defrauded businesses in Nebraska and other states of over $6 million.
The BEC scheme involved impersonating business executives to trick employees into making fraudulent wire transfers.
These emails, designed to appear legitimate, convinced businesses to transfer large sums of money to accounts controlled by Kayode and his associates.
Authorities claim that Kayode provided bank account details used to funnel illicit funds. Many of these accounts belonged to victims of internet romance scams who were manipulated into transferring the stolen money further.
Several of Kayode’s co-conspirators have already been brought to justice.
In February 2019, Adewale Aniyeloye was sentenced to 96 months in prison and ordered to pay $1.57 million in restitution.
In March 2019, Pelumi Fawehinimi received a 72-month sentence and was ordered to pay $1.01 million.
Another co-conspirator, Onome Ijomone, was extradited from Poland and sentenced in January 2020 to 60 months in prison with restitution of $508,934.
Alex Ogunshakin, a co-conspirator who provided bank accounts for the scheme, was sentenced to 45 months’ imprisonment in October 2024 after his successful extradition from Nigeria.