A Nigerian, Amechi Colvis Amuegbunam, in the U.S. on a
student visa has been sentenced in Dallas, Texas by U.S. District Judge Ed
Kinkeade to 46 months in prison and ordered to pay $615,555.12 in restitution.
Amuegbunam, 30, who said he was from Lagos,was jailed for his role in what has
become known as a “Business Email Compromise” (BEC) scheme, announced U.S.
Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
Amuegbunam, 30, who said he was from Lagos,was jailed for
his role in what has become known as a “Business Email Compromise” (BEC)
scheme, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.
The Nigerian pleaded guilty in March 2017 to one count of
conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He has been in custody since the time of his
arrest in August 2015.
According to plea documents in the case, from November
2013 through August 2015, Amuegbunam and other individuals, sent fraudulent
emails to companies in the Northern District of Texas and elsewhere, containing
misrepresentations that caused the companies to wire funds as instructed on a
pdf document that was attached to the email.
The investigation of this particular scheme began when
two companies in the Dallas/Fort Worth area reported to the FBI Dallas office
that they had received targeted spear phishing emails. These emails appeared to
be a forwarded message, allegedly from a top executive at the company, sent to
an employee in the company’s accounting department who had authority to make financial
transfers for the company.
Although the emails appeared to be coming from a company
executive, the messages were actually coming from a false email account
fraudulently created to look like a legitimate company email account. A
fraudulent domain name was used that contained one small difference from the
true company’s email address – such as transposed letters.
After complying with the spear-phishing email
instructions to transfer funds, the companies became victims of the BEC scheme.
The investigation traced the creation of some of the pdfs to Amuegbunam.
According to the factual resume, the scheme involved at least ten victims
totaling a loss of approximately $3,700,000. Source: United States Department
of Justice District of Northern Texas
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