BALTIMORE (BN24) — James Junior Aliyu, a 30-year-old Nigerian national residing in South Africa at the time, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering tied to a $6 million business email compromise (BEC) scheme.
Aliyu is the last of three defendants to enter guilty pleas in connection with the multi-million-dollar fraud operation, which targeted individuals and businesses by hacking email accounts and sending fraudulent wiring instructions. Eight other defendants previously pleaded guilty in related cases within the District of Maryland.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly O. Hayes, announced Aliyu’s plea on August 26, 2025, alongside Acting Special Agent in Charge Evan Campanella of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Baltimore. Aliyu was arrested and extradited from South Africa to the United States to face federal charges.
According to a federal indictment unsealed in July 2022, Aliyu, along with co-defendants Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu—also Nigerian nationals residing in South Africa—conspired from February to July 2017 to gain unauthorized access to email accounts. They sent “spoofed” emails with false wiring instructions designed to trick victims into transferring money into “drop accounts” controlled by the perpetrators.
In addition to wire fraud, Aliyu and his co-conspirators engaged in money laundering by moving the stolen funds through a series of transfers, withdrawals, and check transactions to conceal the origin and ownership of the assets.
Documents from Aliyu’s plea agreement state the intended loss amount for the transactions he controlled exceeded $4.1 million, with actual losses of at least $1.57 million. Aliyu directly controlled over $1.19 million of the stolen funds. He is required to pay a money judgment of at least $1.19 million and restitution totaling no less than $2.38 million to the victims.
Aliyu faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison when he appears for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman on November 24, 2025.
U.S. Attorney Hayes praised the investigative work of the HSI Mid-Atlantic El Dorado Task Force and acknowledged critical assistance from South African law enforcement agencies and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs. The DOJ’s Canadian International Assistance Group also supported the arrests and extraditions of co-defendants Echefu and Simon-Ebo. Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan S. McKoy is prosecuting the case.
