Franklin Ifeanyichukwu Okwonna, a 34-year-old Nigerian national, has been sentenced to five years and three months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution. Okwonna was convicted for his involvement in a computer hacking and business email compromise (BEC) scheme that led to over $5 million in losses for victims in the United States and abroad. He had previously pleaded guilty on May 20 to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Okwonna’s co-defendant, Ebuka Raphael Umeti, also a Nigerian national aged 35, was sentenced on August 27 to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay close to $5 million in restitution. Umeti was found guilty by a federal jury on June 13 of multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, and charges related to intentionally damaging a protected computer.
Court documents and trial evidence revealed that from February 2016 to July 2021, Umeti, Okwonna, and their associates carried out a scheme involving phishing emails that appeared to be from legitimate sources like banks or vendors. These emails, when opened, infected the victims’ computers with malware, granting the defendants unauthorized access to their computer systems and email accounts.
With this access, the defendants were able to obtain sensitive information and trick employees at the victim companies into transferring funds to accounts specified by the conspirators. The scheme resulted in over $5 million in losses for the affected companies.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI Washington Field Office. The announcement of the sentencing was made by Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; and David Sundberg, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.
The prosecution team included Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura D. Withers and Senior Counsel Thomas S. Dougherty of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). CCIPS Senior Counsel Aarash Haghighat contributed to the investigation and indictment.
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in collaboration with the FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in Nairobi, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Kenya’s Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and Directorate of Criminal Investigation, facilitated the extradition of Umeti and Okwonna.
For further details, the press release is available on the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia website, and related court documents can be accessed on the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia’s website or via PACER using Case No. 1:22-cr-123.
