Nigerian Man, Osondu Igwilo Charged With Investment Scam In The US

Nigerian Man, Osondu Igwilo Charged With Investment Scam In The US

A Nigerian man, Osondu Victor Igwilo has been charged in a Houston
court by the US Justice Department as the ringleader of an international
advance-fee scheme.  

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice
Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Ryan Patrick of the
Southern District of Texas, Special Agent in Charge Perrye K. Turner of
the FBI’s Houston Field Office and Special Agent in Charge Robert
Smolich of the U.S. Department of State Office of Inspector General made
the announcement.  

Igwilo’s fraud allegedly involved false promises of investment
funding by individuals who impersonated U.S. bank officials in person
and over the internet to victims around the world. Proceeds of the
scheme were allegedly laundered through U.S. bank accounts and diverted
back to the scheme’s perpetrators in Nigeria.  Osondu Victor Igwilo, 49,
of Lagos, Nigeria, was charged in a complaint filed in the Southern
District of Texas in December 2016. The complaint charges Igwilo with
one count of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of money laundering
conspiracy and one count of aggravated identity theft. Igwilo remains a
fugitive.

As alleged in the complaint, Igwilo was the leader of a criminal
network of “catchers,” who sent phishing emails to potential victims
falsely offering investment funding on behalf of BB&T Corporation, a
U.S. bank headquartered in North Carolina. When victims were interested
in the supposed investment funding, Igwilo allegedly dispatched U.S.
citizens whom he had recruited over the internet to pose as
“representatives” of BB&T to meet in person with the victims and
sign a supposed investment agreement on behalf of BB&T.

When travelling to the countries where the victims resided, these
representatives, at Igwilo’s direction, would visit the local U.S.
embassy or consulate and employ fake documents with fraudulent seals of
the U.S. government to deceive the victims into believing that the
investment agreement was sponsored by the U.S. government, the complaint
alleges.  

Igwilo then allegedly used the representatives and catchers to
convince victims to make wire payments to bank accounts in the United
States on the false belief that such payments were necessary to
effectuate the investment agreements. The holders of the U.S. bank
accounts were “money movers,” who disposed of the funds as directed by
Igwilo, including by purchasing luxury vehicles, from brands such as
Mercedes Benz and Range Rover, and shipping them to Nigeria, the
complaint alleges.