A Nigerian, Olumide Ogunremi, on Wednesday, appeared in court over his alleged involvement in a scheme that defrauded vendors of office products valued at nearly $1 million by “phishing” e-mail login information from US government employees.
This was revealed by a US Attorney, Craig Carpenito, in the District of New Jersey.
According to a statement issued by the district, Ogunremi, who goes by the alias “Tony Williams,” was indicted on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
He was extradited to the District of New Jersey on September 26, 2019, from Canada.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge at the Newark federal court, presided over by Judge Susan D. Wigenton. He was, however, detained without bail.
Court documents revealed that “from July 2013 through December 2013, Ogunremi and other conspirators perpetrated a computer hacking and theft scheme targeting United States government agencies’ email systems and Government Services Administration vendors.
“The ring employed “phishing” attacks, which used fraudulent e-mails and websites that mimicked the legitimate e-mails and web pages of US government agencies, such as the US Environmental Protection Agency. Unwitting employees of those agencies visited the fake web pages and provided their e-mail account usernames and passwords.
“Ogunremi and his conspirators used these stolen credentials to access the employees’ e-mail accounts in order to place fraudulent orders for office products, typically printer toner cartridges, from vendors who were authorized to do business with US government agencies.
“Ogunremi and his conspirators directed the vendors to ship the fraudulent orders to individuals in New Jersey and elsewhere to be repackaged and ultimately shipped to other locations overseas, which were controlled by Ogunremi and his conspirators. Once the orders were received in Nigeria, Ogunremi and his conspirators sold the toner cartridges to another individual on the black market for profit.”
