Animashaun Adebo Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud Conspiracy in $50M BEC Schemes

Nigerian National Pleads Guilty to Series of Multi-Million Dollar Business Email Compromise Schemes

Published By U.S. Attorney's Office Published Date

2026-04-20

The Defendant Orchestrated Fraudulent Schemes That Resulted in More Than $50 Million in Losses by Victims in New York City and Across the Country

BROOKLYN - In Federal court April 20, 2026, in Brooklyn, Animashaun Adebo, also known as “Kazeem” and “Kazeem Animashaun,” pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy for his role in a series of fraudulent business email compromise (BEC) and related romance schemes that resulted in more than $50 million in losses by individuals and small businesses located within the Eastern District of New York and throughout the United States. The defendant and his co-conspirators misappropriated victim funds and laundered them through shell company accounts in the United States and abroad, sometimes using unsuspecting middlemen to further obscure the fraudulent source of the funds.

Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Matt McCool, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, New York Field Office (USSS), announced the plea.

“The defendant and his network of criminal associates perpetrated sophisticated frauds targeting victims here in Brooklyn and throughout the country,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “Schemes like these cause enormous hardship and financial losses to victims every year. Our Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to prioritize prosecuting these online criminal actors and getting victims their hard-earned money back.”

“The staggering number of monetary losses this defendant and his network of thieves inflicted on innocent, hardworking, and good people caused significant financial hardship and distress. Let this sentence send a message to other cyber-criminals out there: You won’t get away with your crimes forever. We will track you down. And there will be significant consequences for your criminal misdeeds,” stated USSS Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool. “I am proud of the work the U.S. Secret Service did in this case, and I want to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and our other law enforcement partners for their diligence in bringing justice to the innocent victims hurt by this criminal network.”
A BEC scheme is a form of cyber-enabled financial fraud. In a typical BEC scheme, a malicious actor compromises legitimate business email accounts through computer intrusion techniques or social engineering and uses those accounts to cause the unauthorized transfer of funds. Techniques for perpetrating these schemes include identity theft, spoofing of emails and websites and the use of malware. Confidence fraud is another form of cyber-enabled financial fraud. In a typical confidence fraud, a malicious actor befriends and gains the confidence of another individual through online communications and uses that confidence to cause the transfer of funds for unauthorized purposes. A romance scheme is a type of confidence fraud wherein the perpetrator adopts a fictitious online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust. The perpetrator then uses the illusion of a romantic relationship to cause the transfer of funds for unauthorized purposes.

Between April 2021 and March 2022, the defendant and his co-conspirators orchestrated a series of fraudulent BEC schemes and related romance schemes and laundered and received proceeds from the fraudulent schemes. As one part of the BEC schemes, victim-individuals involved in real estate transactions received fraudulent emails purporting to be from legitimate parties to those transactions. The emails instructed them to wire funds they believed to be related to the real estate transactions to specified bank accounts. The fraudulent email accounts that contacted the victims closely resembled, but were slightly different from, the email addresses of the legitimate parties to the transaction (a process known as “spoofing”).

As another part of the BEC schemes, employees of victim-companies received fraudulent emails purporting to be from legitimate vendors or other business partners of those companies directing them to transfer funds to specified bank accounts. The employees were also defrauded through email spoofing and received fraudulent emails from accounts that closely resembled, but were slightly different from, the email addresses of the legitimate vendors and business partners.

In each case, after the victims executed the wires in accordance with the fraudulent instructions, the transferred funds were misappropriated from the victims and sent to and through accounts controlled by the defendant and his co-conspirators. The defendant further laundered illicit proceeds through the purchase of luxury watches and through an illegal money exchange operation run by his co-defendant Idowu Ademoroti, who was previously convicted and sentenced to a term of incarceration for his role in the scheme. Adebo ultimately received fraudulent proceeds in corporate bank accounts located in Nigeria.

A third defendant, Nelson Ojeriakhi, also a Nigerian national, was arrested in Paris, France and extradited to the United States in July 2025. Ojeriakhi pleaded guilty in November 2025 and is pending sentencing. A fourth defendant, Noguan Marvellous Eboigbe, also a Nigerian national, remains at large.

The case is being handled by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Andrew D. Reich and Daniel J. Marcus are in charge of the prosecution with the assistance of Paralegal Specialists Liam McNett and Chelsea Guzman.

The Defendants:

ANIMASHAUN ADEBO (also known as “Kazeem” and “Kazeem Animashaun”)

Age: 40

Chicago, Illinois

IDOWU ADEMOROTI

Age: 33

Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Atlanta, Georgia

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-239 (PKC)

NOGUAN MARVELLOUS EBOIGBE (also known as “Randall Olson,” “Martin Roberto” and “Carlos Eduardo”)

Age: 45

Lagos, Nigeria

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 24-CR-240 (PKC)

NELSON OJERIAKHI (also known as “Ojeey Mami” and “Oba Millie”)

Age: 32

Lagos, Nigeria

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 23-CR-188 (PKC)

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