A Nigerian citizen, Farouk Adekunle Adepoju, has been arrested in the UK following a United States request for extradition over costs of wire fraud and pc fraud totaling greater than $235,000.
In keeping with the U.S. Division of Justice (DOJ), Adepoju was arrested by U.Ok. authorities on September 15, 2025, and is awaiting extradition to the USA to face a seven-count indictment within the Western District of Pennsylvania.
He’s accused of utilizing refined cyber strategies to defraud a college in Pennsylvania out of $235,266.80 between March and April 2023.
Alleged offenses
Court docket filings allege that Adepoju gained unauthorized entry to a development firm’s e-mail system whereas the corporate was performing work for the college.
- He then created rule adjustments in an worker’s account, registered a spoofed area, and impersonated one other firm worker through e-mail.
- By means of this scheme, Adepoju allegedly tricked college workers into updating the corporate’s fee particulars to his fraudulent bank account, resulting in the switch of funds that haven’t been recovered.
“Adepoju is charged with utilizing refined cyber means to illegally entry accounts belonging to a enterprise in an effort to victimize one in every of our area’s universities,” mentioned Appearing U.S. Legal professional Troy Rivetti.
“His arrest in the UK underscores our dedication to aggressively find and prosecute cybercriminals worldwide,” he added.
BEC risk
The FBI’s Pittsburgh Area Workplace, which led the investigation, emphasised that e-mail compromise schemes stay one of many costliest threats to companies and establishments.
“We’ll discover you and produce you to justice, irrespective of the place you is perhaps,” mentioned FBI Particular Agent in Cost Kevin Rojek.
- Adepoju faces six counts of wire fraud and one rely of pc fraud. Every wire fraud cost carries a most penalty of 20 years in jail, whereas the pc fraud offense carries as much as 5 years.
- The precise sentence, if convicted, would rely on the federal sentencing pointers and his felony historical past.
- The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Legal professional Mark V. Gurzo, with help from the DOJ’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs.
What it is best to know
In the same growth in August, a Nigerian nationwide, Chukwuemeka Victor Amachukwu, was extradited to the USA from France to face costs associated to pc hacking, id theft, and wire fraud schemes that allegedly defrauded U.S. tax authorities and victims out of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
Amachukwu, who additionally goes by the aliases “Chukwuemeka Victor Eletuo” and “So Kwan Leung,” appeared earlier than Justice of the Peace Decide Robert W. Lehrburger shortly after his arrival.
His case was assigned to U.S. District Decide Paul G. Gardephe.
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