Nigerian man sentenced for $234,000 wire fraud from Nebraska bank account
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A Nigerian man will be forced to fork over almost $200,000 that he stole from a Nebraska bank account.
U.S. District Judge Robert Rossiter Jr. sentenced Tope Gbenga Opaogun, 43, on Friday for wire fraud conspiracy.
Opaogun will spend two years in prison and three years on supervised release, then he will be deported.
Rossiter also ordered him to pay $193,458.21 in restitution.
In 2013, Opaogun and an unnamed co-defendant “compromised” someone’s email account, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
They then used the email account to communicate with employees at the person’s bank in Nebraska, authorities say.
Opaogun and his accomplice got the employees make six transfers totaling $234,900 from the victim’s bank account to their bank account, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
They tried unsuccessfully to get another $182,000, according to authorities.
Opaogun was indicted in 2018 and arrested in 2022, when he was on vacation in Senegal.
The FBI is still on the hunt for his co-defendant.
