Olusegun Samson Adejorin, a Nigerian citizen, has been apprehended in Ghana for his alleged involvement in a Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud amounting to $7.5 million.
The United States (US) Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, and Acting Special Agent in Charge, R. Joseph Rothrock of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Baltimore Field Office, announced Adejorin’s indictment.
An eight-count federal grand jury indictment was unsealed, charging Adejorin with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unauthorized access to a protected computer. The accusations relate to a sophisticated scheme executed between June and August 2020, wherein Adejorin targeted two charitable organizations, one in North Bethesda, Maryland (Victim 1), and the other in New York, New York (Victim 2).
The indictment alleges that Adejorin, by impersonating employees and gaining access to their email accounts, orchestrated fraudulent financial transactions.
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Specifically, he posed as an employee of Victim 2, inducing withdrawals of funds from Victim 1, a charitable organization providing investment services to Victim 2. Withdrawals exceeding $10,000 required approval from authorized individuals, a condition Adejorin circumvented.
As part of the elaborate scheme, Adejorin obtained employee credentials, used a credential harvesting tool, and registered spoofed domain names. He strategically concealed fraudulent emails from legitimate employees, causing them to be moved to inconspicuous locations within mailboxes.
Adejorin successfully directed over $7.5 million of Victim 2’s funds to bank accounts not associated with Victim 2, following fraudulent withdrawal requests initiated from Victim 1.
If convicted, Adejorin faces severe penalties, including a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the five wire fraud counts, up to five years for unauthorized access to a protected computer, and mandatory consecutive sentences of two years for each of the two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Additionally, two of the wire fraud counts could incur an increased penalty of seven years for knowingly falsely registering and using a domain name. The suspect is currently detained in Ghana pending his initial appearance.
