Damian Williams, the US Legal professional for the Southern District of New York, introduced at present that FATADE IDOWU OLAMILEKAN, a/ok/a “Fatade Olamilekan Idowu,” a/ok/a “Olamilekan Idowu Fatade,” a/ok/a “Idowu Fatade,” a citizen of Nigeria, was sentenced to 5 years in jail in reference to a scheme to fraudulently receive and try and receive tens of millions of {dollars} of medical gear, laboratory merchandise, laptop gear and {hardware}, and different merchandise from suppliers of such merchandise throughout the US by impersonating, amongst different people, procurement officers of U.S. state and native governments and academic establishments. OLAMILEKAN was arrested in Nigeria on October 1, 2021, and extradited from Nigeria to the US on July 14, 2022, and he has been detained since his arrest. The defendant beforehand pled responsible to wire fraud earlier than U.S. District Decide Valerie E. Caproni, who imposed at present’s sentence.
U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams mentioned: “Fatade Idowu Olamilekan carried out a sprawling prison scheme from Nigeria to fraudulently receive medical gear and different merchandise by impersonating authorities officers, together with the Chief Procurement Officer for New York. Olamilekan will now face substantial jail time for his prison conduct. This case demonstrates that we’ll go to nice lengths to pursue defendants positioned overseas who search to defraud American companies and people.”
In line with the allegations within the Indictment and different court docket paperwork:
From no less than in or about 2018 via no less than on or about September 14, 2020, OLAMILEKAN engaged in a scheme to fraudulently receive and try and receive tens of millions of {dollars} of medical gear, laboratory merchandise, laptop gear and {hardware}, and different merchandise from suppliers of such merchandise throughout the US by impersonating, amongst different people, procurement officers of U.S. state and native governments and academic establishments. Specifically, in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, OLAMILEKAN impersonated the Chief Procurement Officer of New York State in an effort to fraudulently receive medical gear, together with defibrillators. OLAMILEKAN engaged within the following conduct to hold out his prison scheme:
First, OLAMILEKAN engaged in intensive analysis to establish particular procurement officers of U.S. state and native governments and academic establishments to impersonate and U.S. suppliers of medical, laboratory, and laptop gear to focus on as a part of the scheme. This analysis included acquiring details about the present suppliers to the state and native governments and academic establishments OLAMILEKAN sought to impersonate and focusing on these suppliers in an effort to keep away from arousing suspicion. For instance, OLAMILEKAN seems to have particularly focused a medical provider that was already offering medical gear to New York State in or to keep away from suspicion when OLAMILEKAN, who was impersonating the Chief Procurement Officer of New York State, contacted the provider to acquire medical gear.
Second, after OLAMILEKAN recognized procurement officers to impersonate, he used aliases and a Lithuanian webhosting firm to register e-mail accounts with domains that had slight variations from the authentic e-mail accounts utilized by procurement officers in an effort to “spoof” or impersonate these officers’ e-mail accounts (the “spoofed emailed accounts”). The spoofed e-mail accounts utilized by OLAMILEKAN normally had the identical username because the procurement official’s e-mail account however added an additional letter or frequent area title to the area of the e-mail account. These spoofed e-mail accounts had been subsequently particularly designed to trick suppliers to impersonated procurement officers into pondering the spoofed e-mail accounts had been genuine. In complete, OLAMILEKAN registered and used spoofed e-mail accounts impersonating no less than (i) eight completely different procurement officers of state and native governments in California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont; and (ii) three procurement officers of academic establishments positioned in Georgia and New York.
Third, OLAMILEKAN used the spoofed e-mail accounts to ship emails impersonating the procurement official and looking for quotes for medical, laboratory, and laptop gear from focused suppliers. These emails usually indicated that the fee phrases could be “internet 30 days,” which is a normal time period of commerce credit score for presidency and academic entities that solely requires fee for the products inside 30 days of supply. OLAMILEKAN subsequently impersonated the identities of procurement officers of presidency entities and academic establishments in an effort to exploit this trade customary and fraudulently receive gear with out offering any advance fee info or deposit previous to supply of the gear.
Lastly, as soon as OLAMILEKAN acquired a response from a focused provider, he offered the provider with a purchase order order containing the solid signature of the impersonated procurement official and an deal with for a warehouse positioned in the US for supply and storage of the gear bought. As soon as the bought gadgets shipped to the warehouse offered by OLAMILEKAN, he usually had the warehouse re-ship the gadgets to a different warehouse and, in the end, from the US to places in Australia, the UK, and/or Nigeria. OLAMILEKAN additionally coordinated with the warehouses receiving the shipments from the focused suppliers utilizing the stolen id of no less than one U.S. resident, thereby additional concealing his personal id and avoiding detection of his prison exercise. As a result of fee was not as a result of suppliers till 30 days after supply of the gear, OLAMILEKAN was in a position to take possession of the gear previous to detection of the fraud, which generally occurred after fee was not acquired by the provider throughout the 30-day interval.
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Along with the jail sentence, OLAMILEKAN, 41, of Lagos, Nigeria, was sentenced to 3 years of supervised launch and ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture of $306,852.18.
Mr. Williams praised the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Williams additionally thanked Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Justice, Nigeria’s Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (“EFCC”), the Central Authority Unit of Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice, and the Legal professional Common of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for his or her help within the investigation. The U.S. Division of Justice’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs of the Division’s Legal Division offered vital help in securing the defendant’s extradition from Nigeria.
This case is being dealt with by the Workplace’s Advanced Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Legal professional Sagar Ok. Ravi is in control of the prosecution.
