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By John Ogunsemore
A Nigerian, Franklin Ifeanyichukwu Okwonna, has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia, United States.
In a statement, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) disclosed that Okwonna was sentenced on Tuesday, September 3 for participating in a computer hacking and business email compromise scheme that caused over $5 million in losses to multiple victims in the United States and elsewhere.
On May 20, the 34-year-old convict pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for his role in the scheme.
The DoJ said a fellow Nigerian and Okwonna’s co-defendant, Ebuka Raphael Umeti, 35, was sentenced on August 27 to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution.
Umeti was convicted by a federal jury on June 13 of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer.
“According to court documents and evidence presented at Umeti’s trial, between February 2016 and July 2021, Umeti, Okwonna, and their co-conspirators caused millions of dollars in unauthorised wire transfers by sending victim businesses phishing emails.
“These emails falsely appeared as though they originated from trusted sources, such as a bank or a vendor.
“After the victim opened an attachment, their computers would be infected with malicious software, or “malware,” that allowed the defendants and their co-conspirators to gain unauthorised access to the victim’s computer systems and email accounts.
“The defendants and their co-conspirators then exploited that access to obtain sensitive information, which they used to deceive individuals at the victim companies into executing wire transfers to accounts specified by the co-conspirators.
“As a result of this scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators caused or attempted to cause over $5 million in losses to the victim companies,” the DoJ said.
