Nigerian entrepreneur Obinwanne Okeke is facing 20 years in prison after pleading to conspiracy to commit wire fraud that caused US Fortune 100 corporation Caterpillar $11 million in losses as part of a business email compromise (BEC) fraud scheme.
The defendant, also known as ‘Invictus Obi’, was listed by Forbes on a list of “Africa’s 30 under 30” in 2016 after founding a group of companies known as Invictus Group involved in telecoms, construction, oil and gas, agriculture, and real estate.
“According to court documents, Obinwanne Okeke, 32, and other conspirators engaged in a conspiracy from approximately 2015 to 2019 to conduct various computer-based frauds,” a Department of Justice press release says .
“The conspirators obtained and compiled the credentials of hundreds of victims, including victims in the Eastern District of Virginia and elsewhere.”
How it all went down
Okeke and his conspirators were able to successfully defraud Unatrac Holding Limited, one of Caterpillar’s export sales office, after sending a phishing email to Unatrac’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and stealing his Microsoft Office 365 login credentials.
They later used his account for sending fraudulent wire transfer requests to Unatrac’s financial team in the form of fake invoices and emails designed to look like they were sent by the CFO.
Okeke also added email filters to automatically mark legitimate emails as read and moved them out of the CFO’s inbox to hide any replies he got from the recipients of the fraudulent wire transfer requests containing fake invoices.
“In June, 2018, representatives for Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment, headquartered in the United Kingdom, contacted the FBI,” an FBI affidavit issued in support of an arrest warrant and a criminal complaint against Okeke reads.
“They reported that Unatrac had been victimized through an email compromise, which ultimately resulted in fraudulent wire transfers totaling nearly $11
million (11 million US Dollars).”
Proof is in the logs
After Unatrac’s report and reviewing the documentation the company’s representatives provided as proof of the fraudulent wire transfers, the FBI opened an investigation in July 2018.
During the investigation, they were able to link Okeke with multiple Gmail email addresses used throughout the fraud scheme with the help of a confidential source and login session cookies.
After analyzing server logs, an FBI agent also found that Okeke accessed the CFO’s account 464 times between April 6 and April, 2018, mostly from Nigerian IP addresses.
An arrest warrant was issued in Okeke’s name by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in August 2019.
On June 18, 2020, Okeke pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and he will be sentenced on October 22 when he will be facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.&
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