Rebecca Smith, Chief District Judge, has passed a ruling to sentence international fraudster Obinwanne Okeke a.k.a Invictus, to 10 years in jail following his conviction on a fraud allegation of up $11million.
The judge reveals that Invictus was involved in a computer-based intrusion fraud scheme that caused approximately $11 million losses to his victims.
“Through subterfuge and impersonation, Obinwanne Okeke engaged in a multi-year global business email and computer hacking scheme that caused a staggering $11 million in losses to his victims,” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Today’s sentence further demonstrates EDVA’s and FBI’s worldwide reach in vigorously pursuing justice on behalf of American victims and others and holding international cybercriminals accountable, no matter where they commit their crimes.”
Documents made available to the court reveals that 33-year-old Invictus operates a group of companies known as Invictus Group, located in Nigeria and some other part of the world.
From around 2015 to 2019, Okeke was said to have engaged in a conspiracy computer-based fraud with some other people. He and his conspirators collected and compiled the credentials of hundreds of victims, including victims in the Eastern District of Virginia.
One of the schemes which Invictus perpetrated involved an email compromise scheme to the export sales office of Unatrac Holding Limited for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment.
In 2018 April, a Unatrac executive fell victim to a phishing email that enabled Okeke and his team gets login credentials. They sent fraudulent wire transfers with fake invoices.
Invictus was part of the scheme that wanted to victimize Unatrac through fraudulent wire transfers totaling about #11m, which was done overseas.
Okeke also partook in other cyber fraud, including sending phishing emails to acquire email credentials, creating fraudulent web pages, and causing other losses to many victims.
“The FBI will not allow cybercriminals free reign in the digital world to prey on U.S. companies,” said Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office.
He added, “This sentencing demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to working with our partners at the Department of Justice and our foreign counterparts to locate cybercriminals across the globe and bring them to the United States to be held accountable.”
Okeke was formally named among the Forbes 30 under 30 category of the world’s youngest millionaires.