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Obinwanne Okeke advance ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boy’: Busted by FBI

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Obinwanne Okeke advance ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boy’: Busted by FBI

Unread postby firefly » Sun Sep 01, 2019 4:25 pm

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2019/08/1 ... ed-by-fbi/
August 17, 2019

Obinwanne Okeke advance ‘Yahoo Yahoo Boy’: Busted by FBI

For several years, Obinwanne Okeke, chairman ‘Invictus Group’ was the poster boy of the youthful Nigerian energy and entrepreneurial success.

He was celebrated by Forbes Africa in 2016 as one of Africa’s Under 30s Most Promising Entrepreneurs. He even made the cover of the magazine that usually glorifies the rich and the successful.

In December 2018, he was a guest speaker at TEDxYaba2018. He spoke about “the DNA of the Nigerian entrepreneur”. His recommendation will inspire the most laid-back member of his generation: “The success of a business is largely dependent on you as the owner. If there is any part of you that appears to be a limitation, don’t let it hold you back. Take deliberate steps to develop yourself to match your weakness, growth is continuous. Associate with people that will inspire you and are ready to support you. Develop these traits in the right proportion. Don’t be afraid to fail, be afraid not to try. Go for it. Start Something Today!”

That same year, BellaNaija, one of Nigeria’s celebrity platforms showcased him in its ‘Man Crush Monday series’.

Until yesterday, no one ever suspected Okeke was a fraud.

But the secret was let out by Instablog9Ja’s reality-shattering post about the affidavit of FBI special agent, Marshall Ward that showed that Okeke has only been showing a facade of business success: https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/wp-conten ... idavit.pdf

He is just like all the Yahoo Boys that EFCC hunts down the streets, except that he practices his own at another level, a much higher level, phishing, e-masquerading and stealing millions of dollars from several foreign companies.

An embarrassed Bella Naija regretted being duped like Forbes Africa and TedEX and took the decision to obliterate Okeke from its site.

“We have now taken the post off our website and it has been deleted off our social media.
We will keep you updated as more information on the investigation unfolds”, it announced today in a sparse story announcing FBI arrest of the fabled Nigerian young ‘billionaire’.

In his filing, Marshall Ward deposed, after a painstaking investigation that Okeke, defrauded UNATRAC Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment in the UK, of a staggering $11million.

The FBI investigation followed a complaint by the CFO of UNATRAC that his email had been compromised via phishing and spoofing and that his email account had been accessed illegally 464 times between April 6 and April April 20, 2018, mostly from Internet protocol addresses in Nigeria. Through the hijacked account wire transfers running into millions of dollars were made by UNATRAC to fictitious accounts controlled by Okeke.

Further investigation found that Okeke similarly fleeced Red Wing Shoe Company based in Minnesota of $108,470 also last year. There were other victims in Indiana, California, Alabama, Wisconsin, the investigator found.

Okeke was arrested while visiting the United States this month.

The news has been the most shocking in Nigeria for some time, with Twitterati wondering why the red flags were not seen by everyone until now.

Giditraffic posted a video of a birthday bash by Okeke in South Africa last November, where he was drenched with expensive champagne.

“AAshey yahoo yahoo lomo naa… Ogbeni Invictus obi, Forbes list was getting boring, so he jumped to FBI list”, wrote Ayodeji @datmastermind80 on Twitter.

“This Invictus Obi’s story clearly shows that Yahoo Yahoo boys can operate anywhere- even wearing suits. That’s why I hardly believe all these influencers giving Tedx Talks if I can’t trace their sources of income. Most of them do Yahoo as a major side hustle. Run your own race!”, Olalekan Adigun wrote.

Henry Okelue said: “The apprehension of Invictus Obi is hopefully a notification to the gutter mouthed “rich” businessman/men with obviously dubious “wealth” on here. Your time is near.”

On his company’s website, Okeke published some snippets about his life, which we must warn the reader to take with a pinch of salt, with the report emanating from the United States.

Okeke was born on November 9, 1987, in Ukpor village, 790 kilometres from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, as the 17th child of a polygamous father.

He went to boarding school aged 10, lost his father at 16 and moved from one relative to another. He named his company Invictus after one of Nelson Mandela’s favourite a poems, by William Ernest Henley, about the undefeated and unconquerable soul of a hard worker, from an impoverished background, who will not give up.

His company, the site claimed, is into construction, agriculture, oil and gas, telecoms and real estate. He has 28 permanent and 100 part-time employees across nine companies. We now know better.

As a teenager, Okeke took courses in business management as well as obtained a diploma as a computer technician. He later moved to Australia to study, where he said he “did all kinds of jobs just to survive.”

He started an events/entertainment company for students called Invictus media and also interned at a poverty alleviation NGO in the country.

While in Australia, he founded Literacy Africa International to raise “awareness about literacy problem among children in Africa.”

He also sourced for donors of used children books across Australia and shipped them to disadvantaged kids across Africa.

He saved some money, came back to Nigeria, and invested it in his business.

In 2017, Invictus Group was named as Africa’s Most Innovative Investment Company of the Year by African Brand Congress.

The same year, Obinwanne was nominated in the Young African Business Leader (West Africa) category for the All Africa Business Leaders Awards ( AABLA).

The rest is history.
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Obinwanne Okeke jailed for 10 years in $11m email scam

Unread postby firefly » Thu Feb 18, 2021 10:30 pm

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/17/afri ... index.html

Nigerian entrepreneur Obinwanne Okeke jailed for 10 years in $11m email scam
February 17, 2021

Celebrated Nigerian entrepreneur Obinwanne Okeke has been jailed for 10 years by a US federal court for masterminding an $11 million cyber fraud on a British company.

The court heard that "through subterfuge and impersonation, Obinwanne Okeke, engaged in a multi-year global business email and computer hacking scheme that caused a staggering $11 million in losses to his victims," Raj Parekh, Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement Tuesday after the sentencing.
British company Unatrac Holding Limited -- the export sales office for industrial machinery company Caterpillar -- were the victims of an online heist perpetrated by Okeke and his team, who had obtained their login details through phishing emails, the justice department said.
"In April 2018, a Unatrac executive fell prey to a phishing email that allowed conspirators to capture login credentials," according to the statement.
"The conspirators sent fraudulent wire transfer requests and attached fake invoices. Okeke participated in the effort to victimize Unatrac through fraudulent wire transfers totaling nearly $11 million, which was transferred overseas," the statement added.
Okeke, who was hailed as a promising entrepreneur and appeared on the Forbes magazine '30 under 30 list,' had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge in June 2020, after he was arrested during a visit to the US.
Okeke, who operated a chain of companies under parent firm Invictus Group -- based in Nigeria, was found to have committed a series of wire frauds between 2015 to 2019 along with others.
"The conspirators obtained and compiled the credentials of hundreds of victims, including victims in the Eastern District of Virginia," the US justice department said.
"The FBI will not allow cyber criminals free reign in the digital world to prey on U.S. companies," Brian Dugan, the FBI's Special Agent in Charge of Norfolk Field Office said after the sentencing.
Okeke was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, in August 2019, just before he got on a flight to Nigeria during a visit to the US.
His sentencing was initially scheduled for October 22, 2020, but was deferred until February 16, 2021.
In June 2016, Okeke who was 28 at the time, was recognized by Forbes among Africa's Most Promising Entrepreneurs under 30 and was praised for his strides in construction, agriculture, oil and gas, telecoms and real estate.
The Forbes article stated that he was the 17th child in a polygamous home of four wives, and was born into an impoverished background.
According to Forbes, Okeke named his company Invictus "after one of Nelson Mandela's favorite a poems, by William Ernest Henley, about the undefeated and unconquerable soul of a hard worker, from an impoverished background, who will not give up."
Help yourself by helping others - report your scammer here.
Google can be your best friend;use it if you have doubts about someone met online. If someone met online only asks for money, no matter what reason, it´s 100% scam.
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firefly
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