A 35-year-old Nigerian man, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi, was extradited from Germany to the United States of America and has pledged two counts of wire fraud.
U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Erin Keegan, a special agent in charge of the Office of Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), made the announcement in a statement Thursday, March 20.
Umeadi admits to requesting and purchasing web pages from computer hackers, allowing him to illegally access people’s email passwords.
Umeadi uses these passwords to access the email account of employees of Sri Lankan agricultural product exporters.
The defendant then sent a fraudulent email that appeared to be legally from the agricultural product exporter but was actually an email account set up and controlled by Umeadi, directing accounts receivable payments for Sri Lankan companies and being controlled by Umeadi in the UK.
Due to fraudulent emails from Umeadi, twice in 2016, agricultural importers in Plattsburg, New York, had a wired currency totaling $158,400, handed over to a bank account in the UK.
Umeadi was arrested on September 1, 2024 when authorities arrived there from Germany from Nigeria.
Umidi was then extradited from Germany to the United States.
In a sentencing scheduled for July 21, 2025, Umeadi faces 20 years in prison, with a fine of up to $250,000, and is supervised to be released for up to three years.
The judge sentenced the defendant to the sentence based on the charges of violating, U.S. sentencing guidelines and other factors.
The defendant will face evacuation from the United States after serving his sentence.
HSI is investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Collyer prosecuted the case with assistance from the U.S. Bureau of International Affairs.
