A 35-year-old Nigerian man, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi, who was extradited from Germany to the United States of America, has pled guilty on to two counts of wire fraud.
United States Attorney John A. Sarcone III and Erin Keegan, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), made the announcement in a statement on Thursday, March 20.
Umeadi admitted soliciting and purchasing a webpage from a computer hacker that allowed him to illegally gain access to people’s email passwords.
Umeadi used those passwords to gain access to email accounts belonging to employees of a produce exporter in Sri Lanka.
The accused then sent fraudulent emails, which appeared to legitimately come from the produce exporter but were in fact from an email account set up and controlled by Umeadi, directing payment on the Sri Lankan company’s accounts receivable be made to bank accounts in the United Kingdom, controlled by Umeadi.
As a result of the fraudulent emails from Umeadi, on two occasions in 2016, a produce importer in Plattsburgh, New York, wired money, totalling $158,400, to those bank accounts in the United Kingdom.
Umeadi was arrested on the charges on September 1, 2024, by authorities in Germany when he arrived there from Nigeria.
Umeadi was then extradited from Germany to the United States.
At sentencing, scheduled for July 21, 2025, Umeadi faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.
A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
The defendant will face removal from the United States after service of his imprisonment term.
HSI is investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Collyer is prosecuting the case with the assistance of the United States Department of Justice Office of International Affairs.
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