The Chief Executive Officer of Invictus Group, Obinwanne Okeke, has been reportedly arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiracy to commit computer fraud.
Obi Okeke made it into Forbes Africa’s Under 30 List in 2016.
He was arrested by the FBI over $11 million wire fraud after an Office365 account belonging to a steel company’s CEO was hacked.
The suspect was said to have conspired with several individuals to access the CEO’s computers without authorization.
According to an affidavit, Marshall Ward, a Special Agent of FBI, said Okeke’s intention, alongside other conspirators, was to initiate a fraudulent transfer of funds.
Ward stated that Okeke should be charged for conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
FBI was contacted by the representatives of Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and firm equipment, last year after they experienced a fraudulent wire transfer of $11 million through an email compromise.
Unatrac’s Chief Financial Officer received a phishing email containing a web link in April 2018, purportedly to the login page of the CFO’s online email account hosted by Microsoft Office365.
Upon opening the link, he was directed to a phishing website crafted to imitate the legitimate Office365 login page.
Believing the page was real, the CFO provided his login details which were captured by an unknown intruder who controlled the spoofed web page. Between April 6 and April 20, 2018, the intruder accessed the CFO’s account at least 464 times, mostly from Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in Nigeria.
The report led to an investigation which began in July 2018 after the FBI reviewed the submitted documents.
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