U.S. Attorney Susan T. semester.
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Okoronkwo to 75 months in prison on January 29, 2025.
The sentencing is included in a press statement issued by the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
“The federal system does not have parole. After being released from prison, Okoronkwo will be placed in a three-year supervised release period and will be deported by immigration authorities,” the news report said. ”
Okoronkwo was also ordered to compensate $342,535.00 in damages, which were seven victims caused by his crimes.
Edwin Okoronkwo, a legal permanent resident of the United States, lives in Nebraska with his spouse Julie Okoronkwo, who uses the “cat fish” program to get money from victims over the Internet.
In doing so, they convinced the victims to send money using fake online social media characters. In some cases, they claim to be a senior member of the U.S. military in overseas missions.
Through the “cat fish” program, victims from all over the country were tricked into sending money through the United States Postal Service (USPS) and other commercial carriers such as FedEx and UPS.
Okoronkwos uses the victim’s personally identifiable information (PII) to obtain open banking accounts and other online financial services accounts from victims of identity theft, including peer-to-peer digital payment platforms (e.g. PayPal and Venmo, Zelle and Cash App).
They instructed victims of the “catfish” program to send money from the victim’s personal peer-to-peer digital payment platform account to the peer-to-peer digital payment platform opened by Okoronkwos and use the name of identity theft and PII victims. From these wrong accounts, Okoronkwos then transfers funds to their personal bank account, using bank accounts that are the names of the victims of their identity theft but are controlled by Okoronkwos or opened by cryptocurrency exchange platforms. Some of the money will then be passed on to Nigeria’s recipients via international wire transfers via remittance services.
Julie Okoronkwo contacted the “cat fish” victims by phone to further convince them of the legitimacy of their demand for cash and from her workplace (hospital-subjects of identification) Obtain information including their Social Security Number and Nebraska Driver’s License.
Okoronkwos uses recognition methods to facilitate its “catfishing” scheme.
Julie Okoronkwo was sentenced to 25 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Buescher on January 10, 2025.
Judge Boucher said at Edwin Okoronkwo’s sentencing hearing that the crime was “a tragedy for the victims is indeed a tragedy.”
The case has been investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
