…Wire Fraud Tops List With 27 Cases
…Texas Leads Arrest Locations
At least 30 Nigerians listed on the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s “Worst of the Worst” deportation portal have been linked to more than N86.8bn ($62m) in fraud losses, restitution orders and intended losses.
This is according to the U.S. Department of Justice publications analysed by THE WHISTLER.
The 30 are among 124 Nigerians currently listed on the DHS portal at wow.dhs.gov, a public database of foreign nationals flagged for deportation.
Financial crimes accounted for 77 of the 124 entries (62% of the total). But THE WHISTLER could not retrieve court records for 47 of the convicts/suspects.
The largest single case involved one Richard Ugbah, sentenced to 12 years in November 2017 for a romance fraud and business email compromise scheme. The presiding judge found intended losses of $12.9m and noted the figure was likely understated. Ugbah was arrested at Joint Base MDL in New Jersey.
In 2023, he applied to the ECOWAS Court of Justice to serve the remainder of his sentence in Nigeria. The court dismissed the application for lack of jurisdiction.
Obinwanne Okeke, sentenced to 10 years for an $11m business email compromise (BEC) scheme, is being held at Oakdale FCI in Louisiana.
Alex Ogunshakin, extradited from Nigeria and sentenced in October 2024, had spent more than 3 years on the FBI Cyber Most Wanted list before his arrest. Federal prosecutors documented $6m in confirmed losses and more than $30m in attempted fraud in his case.
The three cases account for nearly $30m of the confirmed $62m Fraud total.
Wire fraud was the most common single offence on the list, with 27 charge entries. Other fraud categories recorded 33 entries, with money laundering 18, identity theft 13, forgery or counterfeiting 8, and mail fraud 7.
Wire fraud and money laundering appeared together across multiple case entries, consistent with organised financial crime where proceeds from fraudulent transfers are moved through layered transactions to obscure their origin.
Uche Diuno, convicted in May 2024 for $5.7m in losses, described himself as the “chairman” of an advance fee fraud ring that defrauded victims in more than 20 countries over 4 years. He was sentenced to 60 months.
Oludayo Adeagbo was jailed 7 years for a business email compromise scheme causing more than $5m in losses.
Another Nigerian, Olaniyi Ojikutu opened approximately 25 bank accounts through which $3.4m in romance scam proceeds were laundered. He fled to Canada after indictment and was apprehended 7 months later, and extradited. He is serving 88 months.
Chibundu Anuebunwa was sentenced to 66 months for a $2.5m BEC scheme. Benjamin Ifebajo received 10 years for $2.1m in email fraud. Sakiru Ambali received 42 months after $2.4m passed through his accounts.
Yusuf Bakare and Quazeem Adeyinka were convicted in COVID-19 unemployment insurance fraud conspiracy after obtaining $2.27m. Bakare was sentenced to 4 years and 9 months; Adeyinka received 26 months.
Oluwole Odunowo was sentenced to 54 months as part of an IRS fraud scheme that caused $11.6m in total losses. His individual restitution order was $402,846.
Toluwani Adebakin was a collegiate track and field athlete at William Carey University in Mississippi when he and a teammate were convicted of laundering proceeds from romance, military, and money scams. More than 100 victims sent over $820,000 to the athletes, who transferred the funds to fraudsters in Nigeria. He was sentenced to 36 months in April 2024.
Bameyi Omale is serving 135 months for his role in a romance and investment fraud laundering ring in the Western District of Texas, the longest confirmed sentence among the money laundering entries on the list.
Okechukwu Amadi, serving 11 years and 3 months, was convicted in connection with the Black Axe criminal organisation. He was ordered to forfeit $833,625 in laundered proceeds and pay $1.35m in restitution. Isaiah Okere, also linked to Black Axe, faces a BEC and romance fraud conviction involving more than $1m in losses and is awaiting sentencing in the Southern District of New York.
Oriyomi Aloba was serving 145 months after hacking into the Los Angeles Superior Court computer system and using it to send approximately 2 million malicious phishing emails. His restitution order was $47,479.
The “Worst of the Worst” DHS portal was launched on December 8, 2025. Nigeria initially had 79 entries in early February 2026. The count rose to 97 by February 10, then to 113, before reaching the current 124.
THE WHISTLER findings show that as of the first week of June 2026, a separate DHS West Africa Operations Watch sweep had added 110 more Nigerians to the removal queue as part of a 355-person enforcement action. Nigeria topped the West Africa breakdown, ahead of Liberia with 94, Ghana with 30, and Senegal with 19.
The 124 Nigerians were arrested across at least 26 states and Washington, D.C. Texas recorded the most arrests at 29, followed by Maryland with 14, Pennsylvania and California with 8 each, Georgia with 8, Louisiana with 7, Illinois with 6, and Florida with 5.
Several of the 124 were arrested at federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, meaning they were already serving federal sentences when ICE processed them for removal. Oakdale FCI in Louisiana appeared 8 times as an arrest location despite the state’s relatively small Nigerian diaspora. Yazoo City FCI accounted for the majority of Mississippi’s entries.
Texas’s high number may be driven by the large Nigerian and West African diaspora in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, and by the ICE Dallas Field Office, one of the agency’s largest operational centres.
OTHER OFFENCES
Twenty-eight Nigerians on the list were charged for violent offences, including aggravated assault, robbery, and kidnapping. Olayinka A. Jones, arrested in Fairfax, South Carolina, was the only individual with a manslaughter-level charge.
Three individuals, Donald Ehie of Clayton, Missouri; Adeyinka Ademokunla of Chicago, Illinois; and Ifeanyi Okoro of Oakland, California, faced kidnapping charges. Okoro’s entry also included sexual assault and robbery charges.
Ibrahim Ijaoba, detained at Florence Federal Correctional Complex in Colorado, was listed for escape from custody, gun-related robbery, and assault, with a Bloods gang affiliation recorded.
The records also show that fifteen individuals were charged with sexual offences, with 5 involving alleged crimes against minors. Abayomi Daramola, arrested in Portland, Oregon, was listed for enticement of a minor via telecommunications. The charge attracts a mandatory minimum of 10 years upon conviction.
Cletus Onyali, arrested in Jessup, Maryland, had 5 separate charge entries, including assault, rape, sex offence against a child, cruelty toward a child, and a general sex offence.
Nine individuals were arrested for drug-related crimes. Suraj Tairu in Washington, D.C. faced both heroin sale and heroin smuggling charges. Adewale Aladekoba in Baltimore faced heroin distribution charges. Aderemi Akefe, arrested in Detroit, faced cocaine smuggling and customs evasion charge.
In February 2026, CNN reported that DHS acknowledged a glitch that affected about 5% of entries across the portal. Some individuals were listed for violent criminals despite having only minor offences on record.
Two Nigerians, Adetunji Olofinlade, arrested in Belcamp, Maryland, was listed solely for driving under the influence, and Olamide Jolayemi, arrested in Oklahoma City, was listed for computer crimes and a DUI.
NIGERIA’S RESPONSE
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had in a BBC interview, said the Nigerian government welcomed the return of nationals who had violated U.S. law but insisted such returns must be conducted with dignity. He noted that deportation processes had begun before the current U.S. administration took office.
In a separate Channels TV interview, Tuggar said Nigeria, with a population exceeding 230m, already faces huge domestic challenges and would not accept nationals of other countries under a proposed regional deportation arrangement.
The U.S. concluded a third-country deportation agreement with Sierra Leone in May 2026. It paid Sierra Leone $1.5m to accept up to 300 West Africans annually whose home countries are slow to process returns. Some Nigerians were removed under that arrangement.
(The Whistler)