US Jails Nigerian Man For $1m Wire Fraud (Photo)

A Nigerian, Fawaz Olanrewaju Animasaun
will spend the next two years in jail in the United States for
defrauding East Texans and others out of nearly $1m.

Twenty-seven-year-old
Animasaun, is one of two persons named in a federal indictment for
charges of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit bank
fraud, as well as aiding and abetting.

He was travelling to the
U.S. from Ghana, by way of Amsterdam, when he was arrested at the
airport in New York in November last year.

Just a few weeks
later, the 7-foot-1-inch tall Nigerian was an inmate at the Gregg County
Jail awaiting his turn in a federal courtroom.

Under a plea
agreement finalised in May, Animasaun is serving three years in prison
on the conspiracy charge. He is ordered to pay $930,737.60 in
restitution to three financial companies.

Court documents show Animasaun will pay $135,989 to East Texas-based Austin Bank as part of that restitution.

In addition, the agreement states that Northern Trust Company is due $46,800 and UMB Financial Corporation is due $747,948.60.

Animasaun
and his alleged accomplice Idowu Temitope Omolade, also from Nigeria,
are believed to be involved in at least 21 fraudulent wire transfers
between April and August of 2012.

And that may not be all.

A
rare footnote made by a U.S. Attorney in the 21-page federal indictment
reads, “Because the purpose of this complaint is to set forth only
those facts necessary to establish probable cause to arrest, I have not
described all the relevant facts and circumstances of which I am aware.”

The
indictment says the purpose of the conspiracy was to “… unlawfully
obtain money through unauthorised transfers of funds from bank accounts
and brokerage accounts.”

To do that, the Nigerian men allegedly
impersonated actual account holders in emails exchanged with banking and
financial services personnel. In those email conversations, the
indictment says the suspects “… harvested details about the target
accounts, including account balances, and obtained wire transfer
instructions.” With those details, the suspects were then able to
initiate a wire transfer without the account holder’s knowledge or
authorization.

The indictment said that the money was moved
through a series of accounts using “money mules,” or people who may or
may not have known they were assisting in the transfer.

Other
financial institutions affected include Wells Fargo, UMB Bank, UMB
Financial Corporation, Northern Trust and Northern Trust Corporation.

Animasaun
was transferred out of the Gregg County Jail on June 28, in the custody
of the U.S. Marshals. Federal Bureau of Prisons records show he is now
in a detention centre in Brooklyn, New York, and will remain there until
June 2019. He could have received up to 30 years in prison for each
count of the indictment.

The indictment states that Animasaun
kept Omolade informed of the progress, and told him when to expect
specific wire transfers. Omolade is not listed as a federal inmate, and
there is no record of an arrest. Aliases listed in the indictment
include “Michael Chernick” and “CLICKIDONLINE.”

Animasaun is listed in the indictment with four aliases, including “Larry Hoover” and “Slim Husstle Olanraywaju.”