A Nigerian citizen identified as Babatunde Martins,
residing in Accra, Ghana, has been extradited to Memphis, Tennessee to
stand trial for an indictment charging him with wire fraud, money
laundering, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A Benczkowski of
the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney D. Michael
Dunavant of the Western District of Tennessee, and Special Agent in
Charge M.A. Myers of the FBI’s Memphis Field Office made the
announcement.
Martins who is 64 years old, was indicted on August 23rd, 2017 by a
federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Western District
of Tennessee. He was indicted, along with others for conspiracy to
commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering,
conspiracy to commit computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Following his extradition, Martins’ initial appearance was made on
Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charmiane G. Claxton for the Western
District of Tennessee. The indictment alleges that various Africa-based
co-conspirators committed, or caused to be committed, a series of
intrusions into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real
estate company in June and July 2016.
Using sophisticated anonymization techniques, including the use of
spoofed email addresses and Virtual Private Networks, the
co-conspirators identified large financial transactions, initiated
fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties and then
redirected closing funds through a network of U.S.-based money mules to
final destinations in Africa.
Commonly referred to as business-email compromise, or BEC, this
aspect of the scheme caused hundreds of thousands in loss to companies
and individuals in Memphis. In addition to BEC, the defendant is also
charged with perpetrating romance scams, fraudulent-check scams,
gold-buying scams, advance-fee scams and credit card scams.
The indictment alleges that the proceeds of these criminal
activities, both money and goods, were shipped and/or transferred from
the United States to locations in Africa through a complex network of
both complicit and unwitting individuals that had been recruited through
the variousInternet scams. The defendant is specifically alleged to
have owned and operated a company called Afri Ocean LTD that he used in
furtherance of these crimes.
The defendant, along with his co-conspirators, is believed to have
caused millions in loss to victims across the globe. The DOJ warned
that an indictment is merely an allegation and the defendants are
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a
court of law.
Five other individuals have pleaded guilty to being involved in the
scheme. Two others, Olufalojimi Abegunde, 33, and Javier Luis
Ramos-Alonso, 30, were convicted in March after a seven-day trial in the
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Abegunde
received a 78-month sentence and Ramos-Alonso received a 31-month
sentence for their roles in thescheme. Several individuals remain at
large.
Thursday, December 12, 2019
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Wire Fraud: 64-year old Nigerian, Babatunde Martins, residing in Ghana extradited to US
Wire Fraud: 64-year old Nigerian, Babatunde Martins, residing in Ghana extradited to US
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