Nigerian man Sentenced to 26+ years in real estate phishing scams

Nigerian Kolade Ojelade gets 26 years in U.S. for phishing scams that stole millions by hacking email accounts.

A Nigerian national was sentenced to 26 years in prison in the US for stealing millions by compromising the email accounts of real estate businesses.

The Nigerian national, Kolade Ojelade, Kolade Akinwale Ojelade (34), a resident of Leicester (UK) was sentenced to 26 years in U.S. for phishing scams that resulted in the compromise of millions of email accounts.

“A Nigerian man was sentenced today to more than 26 years in prison for conning prospective homeowners and others out of down payments using a “man-in-the-middle” email phishing and spoofing attack, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.” reads the press release published by DoJ.

Mr. Ojelade was extradited to the U.S. in April 2024, where he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft. He was sentenced to 316 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $3.39 million in restitution.

According to court documents, Mr. Ojelade sent phishing emails to real estate businesses, then after gaining unauthorized access to victims’ accounts monitored their email traffic to determine when large transactions were about to take place. Then the man conducted Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks by changing the information related to wire payments.

“He then intercepted wire payment instructions, changed the information, and resent the emails via spoofed email addresses that mimicked the original senders’ addresses.” continues the press release.

“Unbeknownst to the victims – including prospective homeowners wiring money to real estate companies and real estate companies wiring money to title companies – the modified wiring instructions directed them to accounts controlled by Mr. Ojelade and his co-conspirators. Once the funds hit the accounts, Mr. Ojelade and his coconspirators withdrew the money or transferred it into other bank accounts.” 

Investigators estimated the actual losses from the fraudulent scheme at $12 million, while prosecutors believe the intended losses exceeded $100 million.

“Mr. Ojelade callously engaged in a scheme that stole millions of dollars from prospective homeowners and real estate companies. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of his crimes. Financial crimes can be devastating for individuals and companies because most times those monetary funds are never recovered,” said P.J. O’Brien, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Dallas Division. “We will continue working with our law enforcement partners domestically and internationally to hold individuals accountable for defrauding unsuspecting victims.”

Mr. Ojelade will be deported after serving his sentence.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, phishing scams)