A United States-based Nigerian, Animashaun Adebo, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a series of business email compromise (BEC) and romance scams that caused losses exceeding $50 million.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday, Adebo — who is also known as Kazeem and Kazeem Animashaun — entered his guilty plea on Monday in federal court in Brooklyn.
The DoJ statement detailed that Adebo, alongside his co-conspirators, orchestrated multiple fraudulent schemes targeting individuals and small businesses nationwide, with a particular focus on the Eastern District of New York.
“Earlier today in federal court 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 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 statement read.
The conspirators misappropriated funds from victims and laundered those proceeds through shell company accounts both in the U.S. and abroad, at times using unknowing intermediaries to further disguise the fraudulent origins of the money.
Investigations found the group ran BEC schemes between April 2021 and March 2022. In these schemes, victims involved in real estate transactions received emails impersonating legitimate parties, instructing them to transfer funds to specific accounts controlled by the fraudsters. The fraudulent emails closely mimicked, but slightly differed from, the authentic email addresses of the legitimate parties, a tactic known as spoofing.
Additionally, employees of targeted companies were tricked into transferring funds after receiving emails that appeared to come from trusted vendors or business partners. In each case, the funds were diverted into accounts controlled by Adebo and his associates.
The statement also revealed that some of the illicit proceeds were laundered through the purchase of luxury watches and via an illegal money exchange operation managed by co-defendant Idowu Ademoroti, who has already been convicted and sentenced. Ultimately, Adebo received a portion of the fraudulent proceeds in corporate bank accounts in Nigeria.
Another defendant in the case, Nelson Ojeriakhi, a Nigerian national, was arrested in Paris, France, and extradited to the U.S. in July 2025. Ojeriakhi pleaded guilty in November 2025 and is awaiting sentencing. A fourth suspect, Noguan Eboigbe, remains at large.
On April 8, it was reported that another U.S.-based Nigerian, Ifeanyi Ugwu, faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business involving more than $5 million in illegally obtained funds. U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California, Eric Grant, stated that Ugwu, 49, of Bakersfield, admitted to running the illegal operation between December 2020 and August 2023.
