$50M Scam! FBI Arrests Two Nigerians
Two Nigerian international fraudsters have been caught in the United States for authorizing the ‘Fraud Bible,’ which they used to perpetrate online scams on a very large scale. ‘Fraud Bible’ was devised for swindling their victim, the American government and its citizens.
The entire thing started when the said duo was busted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for creating a ‘Fraud Bible’ through which they stole $50 million (approximately ₦76.5bn as of March 21) from U.S. citizens in a nationwide COVID-19 benefits scheme, Peoples Gazette reports.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Matthew Podolsky unsealed a four-count criminal indictment against the New Jersey-based duo of Nosakhare Nobore and Solomon Aluko on Thursday, which claimed they were members of a gang involved in a nationwide scheme that fraudulently obtained checks and laundered the proceeds across several cities in the U.S.
“We claim these defendants stole tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief and other checks, and even used a ‘Fraud Bible’ containing the instructions for committing fraud,” Mr Podolsky alleged.
“The Social Security Administration, like other programs that provide crisis relief to the public, will not tolerate abuse of taxpayer dollars, and we and our law enforcement partners will bring to full justice all those guilty.”
Through the indictment, the two were alleged to have conspired with four other individuals (Jorge Gonzalez, Leonard Ujkic, Nicholas Pappas, and Shan Anand) charged in this case to steal US$80 million from the US government, banks, and individuals through a conspiracy that spanned four years, from 2021 to 2025.
As part of efforts to elaborate their scheme, the suspects also created a Telegram called ‘2021 Fraud Bible’ where the group openly discussed their illegal dealings and provided others with a ‘format’ to defraud Americans, according to the indictment.
According to charges, the participants had initially specialized in impersonating their victims and using their personal information to generate fraudulent bank accounts, aided by another suspect, a teller from one of the top banks in America, which gave flexibility on how they can customize each account according to their fraudulent activities.
The accused were allowed by the bank teller to deposit checks from the U.S. Treasury, which had been counterfeited or wrongly acquired on the basis of false and unlawful IRS filings pertaining to the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and Qualified Sick Leave Wages (QSLW) credit.
“Many of these checks were funds provided by the government for COVID-19 relief that the defendants stole from the government into bank accounts that they opened using bogus businesses or stolen or counterfeit identities,” the United States said.
Nobore and Aluko, along with others, attempted to steal in the neighborhood of $80 million but only managed to cash out $50 million over the course of four years. When the cheques were deposited, the defendants then withdrew the fraudulently obtained cash, either in cash or by transferring the amounts to other bank accounts owned by them.
Each of the charges carries a penalty of 30 years of imprisonment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, 10 years for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, and a mandatory term of two years for aggravated identity theft.
Join Our Social Media Channels:
WhatsApp: NaijaEyes
Facebook: NaijaEyes
Twitter: NaijaEyes
Instagram: NaijaEyes
TikTok: NaijaEyes
