Who is Abiola Kayode?
Abiola Ayorinde Kayode, 37, of Nigeria has been extradited to the Nebraska, United States on a conspiracy to commit wire fraud indictment filed in Omaha, Nebraska. He was on the most wanted cyber criminal list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is based in Washington, D.C., USA.
From January 2015 to September 2016, Kayode allegedly participated in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme that defrauded businesses in Nebraska and elsewhere of over $6 million. His co-conspirators including Adewale Aniyeloye, Felix Osilama Okpoh and Nnamdi Orson Benson posed as a company’s owner, president or chief executive officer and used email accounts spoofed to make it appear as though they were from the company’s true business executive.
The co-conspirators directed business employees or recipients of the email to complete wire transfers. Believing the requests were legitimate, the business employees complied with the wire transfer requests and wired the money as instructed by the co-conspirators.
Kayode allegedly provided bank account information to his co-conspirators who instructed victims of internet romance scams to transfer the funds to other bank accounts. Onome Ijomone was one of the romance scammers.
Pelumi Fawehinimi served as a bank account facilitator. Alex Ogunshakin provided bank accounts for the scheme.
In February 2019, Aniyeloye was sentenced to 96 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,570,938.05 in restitution. In March 2019, Fawehinimi was sentenced to 72 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $1,014,159.60 in restitution.
On August 21, 2019, Kayode, Okpoh and Benson were indicted in Omaha on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. On August 22, 2019, a federal warrant was issued for Kayode’s arrest.
In January 2020, Ijomone was sentenced to 60 months’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $508,934.40 in restitution. He was extradited from Poland to Nebraska.
In April 2023, Kayode was arrested by law enforcement authorities in Ghana. The authorities granted a U.S. request for his extradition and surrendered him to Federal Bureau of Investigation special agents who brought him to Nebraska.
Ogunshakin was extradited from Nigeria to Nebraska. In October 2024, he was sentenced to 45 months’ imprisonment.
On December 11, 2024, Kayode made his initial court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael D. Nelson on the indictment. The judge ordered the Nigerian man remain detained pending trial.
On December 12, 2024, Kayode’s extradition was announced by U.S. attorney Susan Lehr. Meanwhile, Okpoh and Benson are still at large.
CONAN Daily 