The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S.A. has arrested and charged Kingsley Inegbedion, a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, with a 16-count criminal indictment for his alleged involvement in a $1.5 million internet fraud and money laundering scheme.
According to The New Telegraph, the indictment filed by the FBI on May 14 in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, alleges that Inegbedion and his co-conspirator Efemena Igbe perpetrated romance scams and business email compromise schemes. They posed as legitimate businesses to defraud American citizens between April 2020 and May 2023.
The FBI claims that the Nigerians used sham corporate entities to receive fraudulent funds, which were then distributed into other accounts within and outside the US to conceal the fraud. The defendants allegedly used stolen funds to purchase cashier’s checks and withdraw cash from various bank accounts. The FBI is seeking restitution of funds and forfeiture of property obtained through the fraud scheme.
The indictment states, “Upon conviction of the offences alleged in counts one through 16 of this indictment, the defendants, Efemena Igbe and Kingsley Inegbedion, shall forfeit to the US, pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 982(a)(1), any property, real or personal, involved in such offence, and any property traceable to such property including, but not limited to, a money judgement, that is, a sum of money in United States currency representing the amount of property involved in the offence.”
Inegbedion was taken into custody after the grand jury returned the indictment. Igbe reportedly fled to Nigeria after security officials invited him for questioning before the indictment was filed, The New Telegraph stated.
