Two Nigerians have been sentenced to jail by a US federal court for their roles in wire fraud.
Franklin Okwonna, 34, and Ebuka Umeti, 35, were convicted of causing more than $5 million in losses to various victims in the United States and overseas.
The US Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that Okwonna pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft” on May 20 and was sentenced to five years and three months in prison.
On August 27, Umeti was sentenced to ten years in jail after being convicted on June 13.
Both individuals were asked to pay “nearly $5 million” each in restitution.
The statement reads:
“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 unauthorized 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 unauthorized 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.”