Summary:
- Nigerian man Kolawole Erinle and his firm, Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, have been charged with conspiracy, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, and obtaining money under false pretense for allegedly defrauding Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences of $1.4m. According to the first prosecution witness, Ayotunde Solademi of the FBI, the university became a victim of spoofing, a form of cybercrime that targets businesses using forged sender addresses.
- The university wired the money to what they thought was the construction company, J.E. Dunn, but it was later discovered that the email domain had been altered and the payment went to a different account.
- The FBI’s investigation showed that the money was transferred to a Bank of America account with an account number ending in 6843, which was accessed on March 5, 2019 and wired to a Diamond Bank account in Nigeria.
- The FBI then sent a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation, which led to the indictment of Erinle and his company.
A Nigerian man named Kolawole Erinle and his firm, Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, have been indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for defrauding Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in the United States of $1.4 million. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has preferred a three-count charge of conspiracy, retention of proceeds of criminal conduct, and obtaining money under false pretence against Erinle and his firm.
On Tuesday, February 7, an agent of the FBI, Ayotunde Solademi, told an Ikeja Special Offences Court in Nigeria how Erinle allegedly committed the crime. Solademi, who is a Foreign Service national investigator for the FBI, Office of the Legal Attach in the US Consulate in Nigeria, told the court that the university became a victim of spoofing, a form of cybercrime that targets businesses using forged sender addresses.
According to Solademi, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences underwent a construction project with a construction company named J.E.Dunn in Kansas City in 2019 and made a wired transfer of approximately $1.41 million to an account that was believed to belong to J.E.Dunn. However, after J.E.Dunn contacted the university about the payment, it was discovered that somebody had changed the wire transfer details for J.E.Dunn using a fake email domain.
The FBI investigation revealed that the wire transfer of $1.41 million made by the university entered a Bank of America account, which was accessed the same day by someone who wired $850,000 to a Diamond Bank account in Nigeria. The next day, the same Bank of America account was accessed again and $560,000 was wired to the same Nigerian bank account.
The investigation also revealed that the Bank of America account was opened under the name of Edada Autoparts and Machinary Spareparts Inc with an address in Texas. The Nigerian end of the investigation traced the Diamond Bank account that the money was wired into to Rinde-Remdex Nigeria Limited, which belonged to Erinle.
Further investigation showed that the name of the person who opened the Bank of America account, Edward Dada, was fake, and there was nobody with that name as a resident in the United States. The FBI then sent a petition to the EFCC for further investigation.
The petition was admitted as evidence in court, and Erinle pleaded not guilty to the charges. The case has been adjourned until February 10 for the continuation of the trial.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
