Four US residents have been charged with laundering funds from a variety of fraud schemes during the pandemic, by purchasing cars they subsequently shipped to Nigeria.
A federal grand jury in Puerto Rico yesterday returned a superseding indictment naming: Oluwaseun Adelekan, 40, and Temitope Omotayo, 40, both of Staten Island, New York; Ifeoluwa Dudubo, 37, of Austin, Texas; and Temitope Suleiman, 37, and Oluwasegun Baiyewu, 37, of Richmond, Texas.
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They are all charged with one count of conspiracy to launder funds from wire, mail and access device fraud schemes, although Baiyewu was previously charged in October 2021.
The indictment alleges that the four conspired to launder funds generated from romance scams, pandemic relief unemployment insurance fraud and business email compromise (BEC).
The BEC attacks are said to have impacted companies in Puerto Rico and Missouri, while the other scams defrauded particularly elderly and vulnerable victims in California, Illinois, Washington and Nevada, the Justice Department claimed.
After receiving the proceeds of these crimes, the defendants or their co-conspirators carried out hundreds of transactions, including via cashier’s checks and money orders, and then used these to buy used cars that were shipped to Nigeria.
“Fraud that targets seniors is reprehensible, and money laundering networks like the one alleged in this case allow fraudsters to profit from their unlawful schemes,” said principal deputy assistant attorney Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.
“The department is committed to pursuing investigations and prosecutions of those who victimize the elderly and other vulnerable members of our community.”
Oluwasegun Baiyewu was arrested as part of a swoop on a global BEC gang believed to have targeted hundreds of organizations. He is thought to have been involved in an attack on a Puerto Rico-based renewable energy supplier and a $4.5m BEC money laundering conspiracy, which is presumably part of the above charges.