A 33-year-old Nigerian man has been sentenced to three and a half years in the federal prison for orchestrating a series of advanced cyber fraud programs aimed at American citizens and companies, including those in the Chicago region.
The conviction, transferred by the American district judge Matthew F. Kennelly on Tuesday, follows the guilty plea of Ridwan Adeleke Adepoju in March 2025 for accusations of wire fraud and heavy identity theft.
According to a press release from the office of the American lawyers for the Northern District of Illinois and the conviction of the Federal Public Prosecutor, Adepoju and his fellow-samenwers operated several fraud schemes from Nigeria between 2017 and 2019.
These diagrams include phishing scams that are designed to obtain sensitive W-2 forms, romantic scams that operated vulnerable persons and attempts to submit fraudulent tax returns with the help of stolen personal information. The fraudsters had falsified e -mail addresses, fictional social media personas and ignorant “money pulp animals” to facilitate their crimes, making financial and emotional damage to numerous victims in the United States.
‘[The] The violation of the suspect included years of, complex regulation, involving different types of scams and many victims, “said assistant-American lawyer Ann Marie E. Ursini in the government’s condemnation.” The suspect chose to always be a willing participant in the scheme in the scheme in the scheme. “
The government emphasized the scale of the operation and noted that, although the actual financial losses were estimated between $ 40,000 and $ 95,000, the potential of the damage for damage was considerable. One remarkable copy concerned a wire transfer of $ 46,800 from a company, as well as two attempt at tax returns with the help of stolen identities, which none of them resulted in releasing funds.
The defense of Adepoju, represented by lawyer Joshua G. Herman, argued for a lighter prison sentence of 30 months, referring to mitigating factors such as Adepoju’s difficult education in Nigeria, his voluntary abandonment of criminal activities in 2019 and his efforts on self -improvement.
The defense memorandum detailed adepoju’s sacrifices for his family after the death of his father when he was nine, including the provision of educational possibilities to support his mother and brothers and sisters. Letters from family and friends, including his wife Mary Oladipupo, described Adepoyju as a devoted husband and brother who had turned his life for his arrest, following education and a photography company.
Despite these arguments, the American district judge Matthew F. Kennelly imposed a 43 -month punishment. Adepoyju, who was arrested in October 2023 at Newcastle International Airport in the United Kingdom as he visited his wife, was extradited to the United States in August 2024. He has been held since his arrest.
After completion of his sentence, Adepoyju faces extra challenges, including a likely removal process to Nigeria because of his immigration status, which could extend his time in custody by a few months.
Original report that you don’t see anywhere else, paid by our readers. Click here to support our work.
