A 46-year-old man within the U.S. has been sentenced to 25 years in jail after being discovered responsible of laundering over $9.5 million accrued by finishing up cyber-enabled monetary fraud.
Elvis Eghosa Ogiekpolor of Norcross, Georgia, operated a cash laundering community that opened a minimum of 50 enterprise financial institution accounts for illicitly receiving funds from unsuspecting people and companies after falling sufferer to romance frauds and enterprise e mail compromise (BEC) scams.
Ogiekpolor was charged by a federal grand jury in February 2022 with one rely of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and 15 counts of substantive cash laundering. The scheme was operational from October 2018 to August 2020.
In response to the U.S. Justice Division (DoJ), Ogiekpolor enlisted the assistance of eight “cash mules” to open the phony financial institution accounts underneath the names of non-existent corporations, which had been subsequently used to stash the proceeds from their felony actions.
These included creating fictitious personas on on-line courting websites to provoke conversations with potential targets, earlier than tricking them into wiring funds straight into one of many sham accounts or mailing the money to the cash mules.
“As soon as the fraud proceeds posted to his accounts, Ogiekpolor laundered the funds, together with wiring tons of of hundreds of {dollars} to abroad accounts, and withdrawing substantial quantities in money and cashier’s checks,” the DoJ mentioned, including the rip-off focused retired widows or widowers.
In a single occasion of BEC compromise highlighted by the company, a sufferer enterprise was deceived into making a fee to the tune of “a number of tons of of hundreds of {dollars}” to what it believed was a “long-standing vendor.”
BEC assaults are sometimes executed by sending spear-phishing e mail messages that purport to be from a recognized supply that has ongoing contracts with the focused victims and asking them to switch funds to a distinct account underneath the cybercriminals’ management.
Ogiekpolor’s sentencing follows the conviction of 5 of his co-conspirators, all of whom have been accused of conspiracy to commit cash laundering and have since pleaded responsible to the crime.
“There is no such thing as a means we will make the victims of Ogiekpolor and this community complete once more, however we hope this sentence will a minimum of give them solace that individuals are being held accountable,” mentioned Keri Farley, particular agent accountable for FBI Atlanta.
