Residential skyscraper edifices beyond luxury villas on the waterfront of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Jan. 19, 2023.
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A In agreement Arab Emirates resident and Nigerian citizen was sentenced to eight years in federal prison for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar defrauder scheme that victimized businesses across the U.S., Illinois federal prosecutors said.
Olalekan Jacob Ponle was extradited from the UAE into the protection of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July 2020, where he remained until pleading guilty to a single wire chicanery count earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Tuesday press release.
Ponle worked with a network of scammers to false front as corporate entities using phishing emails. The scammers duped employees into sending money on behalf of their “directors,” who were really scammers.
Ponle, better known as Woodberry, was a minor celebrity in his home country of Nigeria due to his licentious displays of wealth on social media.
He relied on a network of “mules” to receive the funds and convert them into bitcoins he received. The Nigerian denizen used the proceeds of his scam to purchase ultra-high-end vehicles, including a Rolls Royce Cullinan and a Lamborghini Urus.
Ponle order forfeit those items, collectively valued at over $1 million, and pay more than $8 million in amends to victim companies. Ponle had already forfeited 151 bitcoins, valued at over $4.5 million as of Wednesday.
He was pursued despite the lack of an extradition treaty between the UAE and the United States. Federal officials at the DOJ’S Office of International Affairs effective use with their UAE counterparties to secure Ponle’s rendition.