A Nigerian, David Adindu, has pleaded guilty to taking part in email scams attempting to defraud thousands of victims around the world out of millions of dollars, U.S. prosecutors have said.
Adindu, 29, entered his plea to two conspiracy counts before U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan, according to a statement by Acting U.S. Attorney, Joon Kim, in Manhattan.
Prosecutors said Adindu took part in scams in which emails were sent impersonating executives or vendors of companies, directing employees of those companies to make large wire transfers, in what is known as “business email compromise”.
Adindu, who was arrested at a Houston airport, last year, is scheduled to be sentenced on September 26. The more serious of the two counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, while the other carries a maximum sentence of 15 years, Reuters reported.
According to the charge: U.S. v. Adindu, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-cr-00575, Adindu resided in both Guangzhou, China and Lagos, Nigeria, during the period in question and worked with others to carry out business email compromise scams from 2014 to 2016.
According to prosecutors, their targets included an unnamed New York investment firm, where an employee received an email claiming in June 2015, purportedly from an investment adviser at another firm asking for a $25,200 wire transfer.
The employee later learned the email was not actually sent by that adviser, and as a result did not comply with a second wire transfer request for $75,100.
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