Nigerian Man on FBI Cyber’s Most Wanted List Sentenced to 45 Months in US for $6M Wire Fraud

A 41-year-old Nigerian national, Alex Ogunshakin, has been sentenced in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for stealing over $6 million in a wire fraud scheme that targeted two businesses.

United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Senior U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Ogunshakin to 45 months in prison on October 31, 2024, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

There is no parole in the federal system. Upon his release from prison, Ogunshakin will begin a 3-year term of supervised release and is subject to deportation from the United States.

Ogunshakin, who had been on the FBI’s Cyber’s Most Wanted list, was extradited to the United States in 2023.

Between January 2015 and September 2016, Ogunshakin participated in a scheme to defraud U.S.-based businesses. As part of the scheme, Ogunshakin and others were involved in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.

In this scam, co-conspirators used compromised email accounts to send spoofed emails to employees responsible for accounting and authorizing wire transfers.

A spoofed email appears to come from a legitimate source, such as a CEO or other company executive.

These emails directed recipients to complete wire transfers. Believing the requests were genuine, the employees followed the instructions and transferred money to accounts controlled by the fraudsters.

Ogunshakin and his co-conspirators provided bank account information to others who sent the spoofed emails to business executives.

In February and May 2015, two Nebraska-based businesses were targeted by the scheme. The investigation revealed that over 70 U.S.-based businesses were victimized, with losses exceeding $6 million, and attempted losses totaling over $30 million.

Ogunshakin and his co-conspirators operated the fraud scheme from outside the United States, primarily from Nigeria. At the request of the United States, Nigerian authorities arrested Ogunshakin for extradition in October 2020. A Nigerian court ruled him extraditable in July 2023, and he was extradited to the U.S. in September 2023.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs played a key role in securing Ogunshakin’s arrest and extradition, working in coordination with the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Abuja, Nigeria’s Office of the Attorney General, the Federal Ministry of Justice, and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Ogunshakin’s co-conspirator, Adewale Akinloye, was sentenced to 96 months in prison in February 2019. Other co-conspirators—Richard Uzuh, Felix Okpoh, and Nnamdi Benson—remain at large. The extradition proceedings for another co-conspirator, Abiola Kayode, are still ongoing.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lecia E. Wright for the District of Nebraska.