EFCC Arrests FBI’s Most Wanted Nigerian Scammer Over ‘$100m Fraud’
(File photo: AFP)
The arrest, which was made possible by the FBI and the EFCC working together, was praised by the US Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria.
Some people are willing to go to great lengths to make their crime appear as legitimate as possible by telling more lies as long as they will get paid in the end.
Osondu Victor Igwilo is one such Nigerian scammer.
The “catchers”
Since 2018, Igwilo, 52, has been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) watch list.
Igwilo was charged in 2016 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston, Texas, with “one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft,” according to court filings. He’s also the suspected ringleader of an international “catchers” criminal organization.
Their main fraud technique is to send phishing emails to potential victims, enticing them in with false investment funding offers on behalf of BB&T Corporation, one of the leading banking and financial institutions in the United States.
Igwilo and his accomplices exploited stolen identities of US government officials and bogus email accounts to target people all over the world. When a US-based group expressed interest in the funding, Igwilo would send hired US citizens to the victim countries to pose as BB&T representatives, meet with them in person, and sign a purported investment agreement. This only makes the entire scheme appear all the more authentic.
When Igwilo told these fake bank officials they needed to visit victims in other countries, they were told to go to their local US embassy or consulate and construct documents with phoney US government seals to reinforce the pretense that the US government was sponsoring the money.
Both “catchers” and “representatives” were in charge of persuading victim organizations to wire advance payments to US bank accounts as a condition of receiving money. Owners of these accounts were labeled “money movers,” and they were instructed to send the funds to Igwilo. This includes the purchase of high-end vehicles and shipping them to Nigeria.
Igwilo is accused of defrauding victims out of approximately $100M.
“Catchers” caught
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria released a press statement on Monday announcing the arrest of Osondu Igwilo and his accomplices, Okafor Nnamdi Chris, Nwodu Uchenna Emmanuel, and John Anazo Achukwu, at a Lagos studio. They were apprehended on March 11, 2022. Following the arrest, five houses belonging to Igwilo were discovered around Lagos, according to the statement.
The arrest, which was made possible by the FBI and the EFCC working together, was praised by the US Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria.
As per Malwarebytes, Igwilo and his accomplices are expected to be formally charged in court soon.
