The U.S. Attorney's office in Delaware charged Olugbenga Lawal with being a major money launderer for a Nigerian-based international criminal organization that specialized in Business Email Compromise and Romance Scam.
The Defendant's importance in the criminal organization is demonstrated by the fact that he received money directly from defrauded victims as well as from lower-ranking members of the criminal organization.
The criminal organization apparently has obtained and used fraudulent identification and travel documents to aid in its internet-based fraud and money laundering efforts.
In short, the nature of the criminal organization and its crimes has provided Defendant with resources to flee from prosecution.
The combination of the lengthy sentence facing the Defendant and his likely deportation provides the Defendant with a strong incentive to flee prosecution.
As noted already, Defendant has access to an un-identified amount of money that he could use to flee from prosecution, including up to $2 million dollars in cash withdrawals remain largely unaccounted for as well as potential money from co-conspirators looking to help him.
Because Mr. Lawal refused to plea, he went to a Jury Trial where things did not go well for him.
Mr. Hermann took orders from one of the leaders of the criminal organization in Nigeria, a man by the name of Ehonre Oluwaseun, who is more commonly referred to as Classic Baggie.
You will hear evidence that Classic Baggie recruited Michael Hermann to open bank accounts through which to launder fraud money.
Hermann passed information to Classic Baggie and Classic Baggie insured that the scammers had - who had contact with the victims had the correct bank account information.
The scammers then instructed their victims to send money to these bank accounts, and Classic Baggie instructed Michael Hermann on what to do with the fraud money deposited into accounts controlled by Hermann, Assane, and Baines.
You will hear from both Mr. Hermann and Ms. Assane during this trial that most frequently the instructions that came to them were to send the money to the defendant, Mr. Lawal.
You won't have to take them at their word, because you're going to see text messages between Mr. Hermann and Ms. Assane that show funds being directed to the defendant again and again and again.
You will see chat after chat containing instructions to send the money to Lawal.
You will see bank records showing well over three-and-a-half million dollars moving through personal and business bank accounts controlled by the defendant, Mr. Lawal, in years where he reported minimal income to the IRS. The evidence will show that Mr. Lawal and his co-conspirators used some of the scam money to buy cars at car auctions that were shipped overseas to Nigeria, where Classic Baggie lived.
Mr. Opaleye will testify that Mr. Lawal directed dollar deposits into Mr. Opaleye's personal and business accounts in return for the deposit of the equivalent amount of Nigerian currency into Mr. Lawal's Nigerian bank account.
You will see chats between Mr. Opaleye, and the defendant, Mr. Lawal, in which the two discuss the exchange of Nigerian currency or Naira for U.S. dollars.
In one of these chats, the defendant, Mr. Lawal, sent Mr. Opaleye a photo of a bank receipt in someone's lap.
You will learn that soon thereafter, the defendant, Mr. Lawal, sent the same photo to Mr. Opaleye.
You will learn that many of these communications, Mr. Hermann is passing on instructions directly from his boss, Classic Baggie, the leader of the organization to send scam proceeds to the defendant, Mr. Lawal.
This Cyber News was published on garwarner.blogspot.com. Publication date: Sun, 14 Jan 2024 07:13:03 +0000