Two Nigerian international fraudsters who invented a ‘Fraud Bible’ to orchestrate large-scale scams to defraud the American government and its citizens have been nabbed in the United States.
The duo were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for inventing the ‘Fraud Bible’ to steal $50 million (approxiamately ₦76.5bn as of March 21) from U.S. citizens in a nationwide COVID-19 benefits scheme, Peoples Gazette reports
A four-count criminal indictment unsealed on Thursday by Matthew Podolsky, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, accused Nosakhare Nobore and Solomon Aluko.
Both based in New Jersey. They formed part of a gang involved in a nationwide scheme that fraudulently obtained checks and laundered the proceeds across several cities in the U.S.
“We allege that the defendants stole tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief and other checks, and even used a ‘Fraud Bible’ containing instructions for committing fraud,” said Mr Podolsky.
“This Office will not tolerate the exploitation of programs designed to support the public in times of crisis, and we and our law enforcement partners will hold those responsible to full account.”
The indictment alleged that the duo, alongside four other individuals (Jorge Gonzalez, Leonard Ujkic, Nicholas Pappas and Shan Anand), all charged in the case.
They conspired to steal $80 million from the U.S. government, banks, and individuals in a scheme that ran for four years between 2021 and 2025.
As part of efforts to elaborate their scheme, the suspects also created a Telegram called ‘2021 Fraud Bible’ where the group openly discussed their illegal dealings and provided others with a ‘format’ to defraud Americans, according to the indictment.
Officials said the defendants specialised in stealing their victims’ identities and then used the stolen identity information to open fake bank accounts.
This is possible with the help of one of the suspects, who was a teller at a major American bank, which allowed the group to tailor each account to suit their fraudulent activities.
The bank teller gave the defendants an avenue to deposit checks from the U.S. Treasury that had been counterfeited or fraudulently obtained based on false and illegitimate filings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in connection with the Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and Qualified Sick Leave Wages (QSLW) credit.
“Many of the checks were funds provided by the government for COVID-19 relief that the defendants stole before depositing into bank accounts opened using sham businesses or stolen or fake identities,” U.S. officials stated.
Messrs Nobore and Aluko, alongside others, attempted to steal up to $80 million but only succeeded in cashing out $50 million over four years. Once the cheques were deposited, the accused withdrew the fraudulently obtained funds in cash or transferred them to other bank accounts under their control.
Each of them is facing a potential sentence of 30 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, 20 years for conspiracy to commit money laundering, 10 years for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and a mandatory sentence of two years for aggravated identity theft
