Jury Finds Miami Man Guilty in Bank-Fraud Conspiracy

ALEXANDRIA, VA—A jury convicted Henry “Uche” Obilo, age 29, of Miami Florida today of conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, David Baker, Chief of Police, Alexandria Police Department, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, and Jeffrey W. Irvine, Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service, Washington Field Office, made the announcement.

Obilo faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of approximately $17 million. United States District Judge T.S. Ellis, III presided over the trial. Sentencing is scheduled for July 17, 2009.

Obilo is the seventh individual convicted in this case. The other six, who all pled guilty, include: Abel Nnabue, age 33, of Dallas, was sentenced to 54 months on January 30, 2009; Precious Matthews, age 27, of Miami, was sentenced 51 months on February 13, 2009; Brandy Anderson, age 30, Dallas, was sentenced to 2 years of supervised probation and 40 days of community confinement on February 20, 2009; Ezenwa Onyedebelu, age 20, of Dallas, was sentenced to 37 months on February 27, 2009; Daniel Orjinta, age 42, of Nigeria, was sentenced to 42 months on March 6, 2009; and Paula Gipson, age 33, of Dallas, pled guilty on February 26, 2009 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 22, 2009.

According to court documents, the defendants and other co-conspirators used fee-based web databases to search for potential victims with large balances in home equity line of credit (HELOC) accounts. This information included name, address, date of birth, and social security number. Once the conspirators identified a victim they used other online databases to obtain information commonly used in security questions, such as the victim’s mother’s maiden name. The conspirators then obtained credit reports on the victims in order to verify personal information and account balances.

Armed with the victim’s personal information, the conspirators called the victim’s financial institution, impersonated the victim, and transferred the majority of the available money from the HELOC account into an account from which a wire transfer could be sent. The conspirators would then wire transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars to domestic or overseas accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy. The conspirators used caller-ID spoofing services, prepaid cell phones and PC wireless cards, and transferred victims’ home telephone numbers in order to impersonate the victim and avoid identifying themselves.

Once money arrived in a foreign bank, normally in Asia, a money mule who had opened the account for this purpose withdrew the money in cash. The money mule would keep a portion and hand the rest to a courier outside of the bank. The courier would gather several wire transfers from various money mules and crate the money up and send it to the head of the group in Asia. This person would then send wire transfers to various members of the conspiracy. To date, the conspiracy has been linked to more than $8 million in actual losses.

The Nigerians I know are good people. Excellent business sense and they're always looking for or involved in deals. I am sorry these scammers have harmed their reputations. But, in any enterprising group you'll find a criminal element too lazy or greedy to make money the legal/honest way.

Italians, Mormons, Romanians, Russians, Chinese etc. have all been targeted/tarnished for this reason.

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