In a US federal court, Olalekan Ponle, also known as Woodberry, admitted guilt to the charge of fraud.
His sentencing date was set on July 11 by the district court for Northern Illinois.
Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, a well-known Nigerian international fraudster who was imprisoned last year, and Woodberry are recognized allies.
The two guys were detained on June 10, 2020, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for large worldwide internet fraud. They were then transported to the US for separate trials.
Hushpuppi amended his plea from not guilty to guilty in April 2021, shortly before the start of a formal trial. The Central California US District Court, where the charges against him were filed, sentenced him to 11 years in prison and ordered him to make restitution of $1.7 million by November 2022.
Similar to this, Woodberry, who was charged with cheating a US corporation of around $188,000, insisted on his innocence for more than two years. According to court records acquired by PREMIUM TIMES, he reversed course and entered a guilty plea to one count of wire fraud during a change of plea hearing at the US District Court for Northern Illinois this April.
In a decision issued on April 6th, the judge, Robert Gettleman, approved the defendant’s change of plea. After accepting the plea bargain that Woodberry had reached with US prosecutors, he set the sentencing date for July 11th.
For a pre-sentence investigation and report that would help him determine the proper sentence to impose, the court submitted the matter to the Probation Department.
In order to get the court’s order of restitution, he gave the US government 60 days prior to the sentencing date to give the Probation Office and the courtroom deputy with a list of victims and their full current contact information.
“The list must contain any sums that are subject to reparation. The government must make an application to ask for an extension of time to gather the data if it is unable to give the whole victim list 60 days before to sentencing, the court said.
By entering a plea of guilty, Woodberry admitted to using business email compromise scams to steal about $188,000 from a New York-based corporation known as “Victim Company B” online.
According to US authorities, Mr. Ponle and his cohorts “were engaged in a business email compromise scheme targeting Victim Company B and other companies starting in January 2019 which resulted in a fraudulent wire of approximately $188,191.50 to a bank account.”
How a fraudulent plot was hatched
The conspiracy allegedly started on or before January 16, 2019, when one or more of Mr. Ponle’s co-schemers obtained unauthorized access to Victim Company B’s email account.
According to the prosecution, they fraudulently acquired the account credentials and used them to break into the email account.
As stated by the prosecution in the plea deal accepted by Woodberry, “Once access to this email account (“Victim Company B Email Account”) had been achieved, the co-schemers modified some security settings in the email account to mask their activities from the real email account user.
Quickly, on January 16, 2019, a request for a $188,191.50 payment to be made to Victim Company B’s supplier was issued via email from the hacked Victim Company B email account to another email account of the business.
Prosecutors claim that the communication contained instructions for a wire transfer of the funds to a bank account set up by Whiteberry.
“PONLE was aware that he was not authorized to receive the funds and that the email’s purpose was to trick Victim Company B into transferring funds owing to the supplier to an account under his control rather than the supplier’s.
“As a result of the email, approximately $188,191.50 was sent to the 8208 accounts. PONLE acknowledges that the wire was processed through the Federal Reserve System and sent from an account held in New York, New York to an account ending in held in Nashville, Tennessee,” the plea agreement added.
The document went further to state that on 17 January 2019, Mr. Ponle received a message from Individual B informing him that “The money is in”.
It added that Woodberry’s instruction, Individual B converted approximately $119,000 of the proceeds of the fraudulent wire transfer to Bitcoin. “Individual B then sent the Bitcoin to PONLE’s Bitcoin wallet.”
How a fraudulent bank account was set up
According to the plea deal, Woodberry established the phony bank account through which he collected the profits of the scam nine days before he made a payment request on January 16, 2019, using the victim company B’s stolen email account.
According to the prosecution, Mr. Ponle emailed “Individual B” a message from outside the US on January 7, 2019, asking Individual B to create a bank account in the name of a Victim Company B supplier, using the identity “Mark Kain,” the prosecution claims.
According to reports, Woodberry instructed Person B to “set up a separate business account just to receive the money.”
According to the court document, Individual B created an account under the name “[Individual B] d/b/a [Victim Company B supplier]” on Mr. Ponle’s instruction and provided him the account number, which ended in 8208, and the routing number.
He informed Individual B through a message on January 10, 2019, that “$188K” will be sent to the victim company B’s supply account.
The defense attorney is asking the court to mandate that the defendant pay all restitution that is due as of the time of sentencing.
Hushpuppi, an ally of Woodberry’s, was dubbed by the US authorities last year as “a prolific international fraudster who conspired to launder tens of millions of dollars through a series of online scams.”
Hushpupi, according to the authorities, “flaunted his luxurious, crime-funded lifestyle on social media.”
His Instagram account, which served as his primary platform for showcasing his lavish lifestyle, has subsequently been deleted at the US government’s request.
