Nigerian extradited to US to face fraud charges

A Nigerian man identified as Olamilekan Idowu Fatade was on Thursday, July 14, extradited to the United States of America to face prosecution on fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.

Vanguard reports that a statement by the Department of Justice, US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, Fatade’s repatriation was in connection with “fraudulently obtaining and attempting to obtain millions of dollars of medical equipment, laboratory products, computer equipment, and hardware, and other merchandise from suppliers of such merchandise across the United States by impersonating, among other individuals, procurement officials of U.S. state and local governments and educational institutions.”

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation made the announcement on Saturday July 16.

Williams said;

“Fatade Idowu Olamilekan is alleged to have carried out a sprawling criminal scheme to fraudulently obtain medical equipment and other merchandise. Olamilekan allegedly identified U.S. procurement officials, including the Chief Procurement Officer for New York, to then impersonate them and use their credentials to request millions of dollars in equipment shipments from various suppliers without advance payment. Olamileken has now been extradited to the U.S. for his alleged attempt to illegally profiteer from the worldwide pandemic.”

In addition, Driscoll said; 

“We allege Olamilekan impersonated state procurement officials during the height of the pandemic and stole critically-needed medical equipment that was in high demand and short supply. Fraud can have immediate and direct impacts on people, and we remain determined to bring those who commit it to justice.”

He also identified procurement officials to impersonate, by using used aliases and a Lithuanian web hosting company to register email accounts with domains that had slight variations from the legitimate email accounts used by procurement officials in order to “spoof” or impersonate those officials’ email accounts (the “spoofed emailed accounts”).

He also received a response from a targeted supplier, he provided the supplier with a purchase order containing the forged signature of the impersonated procurement official and an address for a warehouse located in the United States for delivery and storage of the equipment purchased.

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