Nigerian man sentenced in Nebraska for $6 million wire fraud scheme

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Nigerian man was sentenced Thursday for stealing more than $6 million in a wire fraud scheme that victimized two Nebraska businesses.

Alex Ogunshakin, 41, was sentenced to three years and nine months in federal prison.

He will then spend three years on supervised release before being deported.

From January 2015 to September 2016, Ogunshakin participated in a scheme to defraud U.S.-based businesses.

As a part of the scheme, he and others used compromised email accounts to send spoofed content to thousands of business employees who handled accounting.

A spoofed email is one that appears to be from a legitimate sender.

Ogunshakin and his counterparts posed as the chief executive officer or other business executives and would direct recipients of the e-mails to complete wire transfers.

In February and May of 2015, Ogunshakin targeted two Nebraska businesses.

The investigation into the scheme revealed that over 70 U.S. businesses fell victim and lost more than $6 million, with attempted losses exceeding $30 million.

Ogunshakin and the co-conspirators committed the offense from outside the United States, mostly from Nigeria.

Nigerian authorities arrested Ogunshakin at the request of the United States in October 2020. He was extradited three years later.

Ogunshakin’s co-conspirator, Adewale Akinloye, was sentenced to eight years in prison in February 2019. Extradition proceedings are ongoing against another suspect, Abiola Kayode.

All other co-conspirators are still wanted.