The Federal Bureau
of Investigations (FBI) has said that $15.3million, which is part of the money
Olalekan Jacob Ponle aka Woodberry stole, was stashed away in a Bitcoin (BTC)
wallet.
Woodberry was
arrested alongside Ramon Olorunwa Abbas aka Hushpuppi and 10 others in Dubai,
UAE over cyber-fraud involving 1.9 million victims to the tune of N168 billion.
They have all been
extradited to the US, where they will face charges of conspiracy to commit
fraud.
In an affidavit, the
FBI noted that Woodberry received the said amount between January and September
2019.
Woodberry allegedly
staged business email compromise (BEC) schemes targeting accounts through
computer intrusion techniques, to carry out unauthorized transfer of funds from
victim companies.
It resulted in a
Chicago-based company losing $2,300,000 while another firm was defrauded into
transferring a total of $15,268,000, part of which was stashed away in BTC
wallet.
“Preliminary
blockchain analysis indicates that PONLE received at least 1,494.71506296
bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at approximately $6,599,499.98,”
the affidavit read.
“These schemes
resulted in attempted and actual losses to victim companies in the tens of
millions. PONLE directed money mules in the US to open bank accounts in the
names of victim companies.
“Proceeds from BEC
schemes, ranging from hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars,
were then wired by unwitting employees to the bank accounts opened by PONLE’s
mules.
“PONLE then
instructed the mules to convert the proceeds to Bitcoin and to send the
proceeds of the BEC schemes to a bitcoin wallet that he owned and operated.”
BTC transactions are
recorded in the Bitcoin blockchain, but the identities of the individuals or
entities are accounted for on the public ledger, making the platform partially
anonymous in nature.
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