U.S. Indicts Dubai-Based Nigerian Fraudster ‘Shadow Walker’ For Wire Fraud

A Nigerian Olusegun Akinlade, often known as ‘Shadow Walker’, has been indicted by the U.S. Division of Justice for bank card fraud and aggravated id theft conspiracy.

In court docket paperwork seen by Peoples Gazette, the U.S. legal professional Craig Carpenito revealed that from “in or about October 2015” via “in or about January 2018,” in Essex County, within the District of New Jersey, “and elsewhere,” the Mr Akinlade “did knowingly and deliberately conspire and agree with others.”

The conspiracy was to execute a scheme and “artifice” to defraud monetary establishments.

Based mostly on the financial institution fraud conspiracy cost, Mr Akinlade faces as much as 30 years in jail and a nice of as much as $1 million. For the aggravated id theft cost carries, ‘Shadow Walker’ will cool off his ft in a U.S. jail for “a compulsory sentence of two years in jail.” The jail time period will run “consecutive to any other time period of imprisonment imposed by the court docket.”

Mr Akinlade, who resides in Dubai and continues to be on the run, and his conspirators allegedly bought “the sufferer account holders’ private figuring out info” from hackers situated exterior of the US. Later, they used the stolen info when contacting “sufferer banks” to hold out the account takeovers or open new accounts.

In 2018, Henry Abdul, a conspirator alongside Mr Akinlade, had pleaded responsible to his position within the scheme, the place he and others used bank card accounts of victims in a scheme known as a “bank card takeover.”

In a fraud as this, fraudsters name the financial institution and pose because the account proprietor to vary the private info related to the account to info acquainted to the unauthorised person. This contains the residence, electronic mail handle, or phone quantity related to the account.

As soon as that is carried out, the fraudsters then go on procuring sprees or switch cash to different accounts, or promote the account info to 3rd events.