"Nigerian Pleads Guilty in US to Million-Dollar BEC Scheme Role"

A Nigerian national residing in South Africa has recently pleaded guilty in court in the United States to his role in a million-dollar business email compromise (BEC) fraud scheme.  The man, Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, 29, was extradited to the US from Canada in April 2023.  According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), Simon-Ebo was involved in a conspiracy to commit BEC fraud and money laundering with total intended losses of close to $7 million.  The actual loss from the scheme, however, was of just over $1 million.  Simon-Ebo admitted in court to gaining unauthorized access to the email accounts of targeted individuals and organizations and to sending email messages from spoofed accounts to trick victims into making money wire transfers to bank accounts controlled by Simon-Ebo and his co-conspirators.  Simon-Ebo admitted that between February 2017 and at least July 2017, he and his accomplices also conspired to commit money laundering by distributing the funds sent by the victims to other accounts they controlled.  The perpetrators also conspired to withdraw the money from those accounts, obtain cashier’s checks, and write checks to other entities, to hide the source of the funds. Simon-Ebo admitted to having direct control of more than $45,000 of the funds fraudulently obtained from the victims.  Per the plea agreement, Simon-Ebo will be required to pay a money judgment in the amount of $45,925 and pay restitution in the full amount of the victims’ losses, which the parties agree is at least $1,072,306.  The DoJ noted that Simon-Ebo is scheduled for sentencing on November 29. He faces up to 20 years in prison for his involvement in wire fraud and money laundering conspiracies.

SecurityWeek reports: "Nigerian Pleads Guilty in US to Million-Dollar BEC Scheme Role"