A Nigerian national has been sentenced to federal prison following a series of cyber scams that caused significant financial damage over a two-year period. Bamidele Omotosho, 42, received a sentence of 12 years and 7 months for his involvement in complex fraudulent schemes that leveraged stolen personal identifying information and access credentials to deceive and defraud, the Department of Justice announced.
Omotosho's criminal activities included conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, as well as computer intrusion, the details of which were laid out in court documents; he and his accomplices used hacked data to divert retirement payments from the Employees Retirement System of Texas and to attack multiple accounting firms across the United States, they also applied for credit cards with stolen identities not to mention indulging in romance fraud and business email compromise, where Omotosho and his co-conspirators swindled a pharmaceutical company out of $250,000 according to the DOJ's press release.
As a consequence of his crimes, Omotosho has been ordered to pay restitution amounting to over $2 million to the victims of these scams. The schemes enacted by Omotosho and his conspirators caused more than $7.5 million in intended losses, with actual losses totaling more than $2 million. These schemes ranged from filing fraudulent tax returns to orchestrating romance fraud against individuals, capitalizing on the vulnerabilities of those seeking companionship.
The concerted efforts of multiple agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, and the Texas Department of Public Safety among others, played a crucial role in bringing Omotosho to justice, the DOJ points out.
