Homeland Security has apprehended a Nigerian national from Germany to the U.S. for defrauding a multinational company.
The fraud suspect, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi, has pleaded guilty to defrauding a Sri Lankan company of $158,400 in an elaborate compromised email scheme after he was arrested and extradited to the United States upon arriving in Germany from Nigeria last year.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi was arrested by German authorities in September 2024 upon his arrival in the country on an arrest warrant issued by U.S. authorities following investigations by Homeland Security into the suspect’s illegal activities.
Mr Umeadi was immediately extradited to the U.S., where he was charged with two counts of wire fraud. As opposed to fighting the charges in a jury trial, the suspect decided to cooperate with authorities and confess to his crimes instead.
The 34-year-old confessed to soliciting and purchasing a webpage from a computer hacker that allowed him to illegally access people’s email passwords, which he then used to illegally access employees’ emails at a produce exporting company in Sri Lanka.
“Umeadi admitted soliciting and purchasing an online website from a computer hacker that allowed him to illegally gain access to people’s email passwords. Umeadi used those passwords to gain access to email accounts belonging to employees of a produce exporter in Sri Lanka,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Officials said Mr Umeadi then sent fake emails to imitate legitimate ones that would normally appear to have come from the exporting company, not knowing they were fraudulent emails from the suspect tricking his victims into redirecting payments meant for the company to bank accounts controlled by Mr Umeadi in the United Kingdom.
“Umeadi used those passwords to gain access to email accounts belonging to employees of a produce exporter in Sri Lanka. Umeadi then sent fraudulent emails, which appeared to legitimately come from the produce exporter but were, in fact, from an email account set up and controlled by Umeadi, directing payment on the Sri Lankan company’s accounts receivable be made to bank accounts in the United Kingdom, controlled by Umeadi,” officials added.
This scheme allowed Mr Umeadi to illegally scam his victims of thousands of dollars, including $158,400, which he tricked a New York-based produce importer into sending to his UK bank accounts on two occasions in 2016.
“As a result of the fraudulent emails from Umeadi, on two occasions in 2016, a produce importer in Plattsburgh, New York, wired money, totalling $158,400, to those bank accounts in the United Kingdom,” said a statement by the Justice Department.
Mr Umeadi faces 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years. His sentencing was scheduled for later in July.
