US Court Sentences Nigerian to 8 Years in Prison Over $7.5m Charity Fraud

US Court Jails Nigerian for Defrauding 400+ Americans

US Court Sentences Nigerian to 8 Years in Prison Over $7.5m Charity Fraud

Olusegun Adejorin convicted of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft for sophisticated business email compromise scheme targeting two charitable organisations

A United States federal court has sentenced a 32-year-old Nigerian national, Olusegun Adejorin, to eight years in prison for orchestrating a sophisticated business email compromise scheme that defrauded two charitable organisations of more than $7.5 million. The sentence, handed down on August 28, 2026, by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, also includes three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Adejorin was extradited from Ghana to the United States by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in August 2024 to face prosecution. Following a six-day trial in December 2025, a federal jury found him guilty on all charges, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unauthorised access to a protected computer to obtain information. The sentence was announced by Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, alongside Jimmy Paul, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Baltimore Field Office.

According to evidence presented at trial, Adejorin carried out the fraud scheme between June and August 2020, targeting two charitable organisations—one based in Maryland and another in New York. The Maryland-based organisation provided investment services to other organisations, while the New York-based charity ultimately lost more than $7.5 million through the fraudulent transactions.

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Prosecutors said Adejorin gained unauthorised access to employees’ email accounts and used the compromised accounts to impersonate staff and facilitate financial transfers. As part of the scheme, he registered spoofed domain names resembling those belonging to employees of the New York charity and used them to send requests to the Maryland organisation seeking withdrawals of funds belonging to the New York charity. He also fraudulently obtained access to email accounts of the Maryland organisation’s employees and used them to send messages falsely confirming the withdrawal requests.

The fraudulent communications ultimately led to more than $7.5 million being transferred from the Maryland organisation into bank accounts that were not associated with the intended recipient. Investigators also revealed that Adejorin had purchased a credential harvesting tool designed to steal email login credentials and had concealed fraudulent emails from a legitimate employee by moving them to an inconspicuous location within the employee’s mailbox. This sophisticated approach allowed the scheme to remain undetected for a significant period while the fraudulent transactions were processed.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office credited the FBI Baltimore Field Office with investigating the case and acknowledged the assistance of several Ghanaian agencies in locating and extraditing Adejorin. Among the Ghanaian authorities involved were the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Police Service–INTERPOL, and the National Intelligence Bureau. The FBI Legal Attaché in Accra also assisted with the investigation, and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs worked with Ghanaian authorities to secure Adejorin’s extradition. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua Rosenthal and Darren Gardner prosecuted the case.

The conviction highlights the use of compromised email accounts, impersonation and spoofed internet domains in business email compromise schemes—a form of fraud that can be used to divert large sums of money through seemingly legitimate financial instructions. Business email compromise has become one of the most financially damaging forms of cybercrime, with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reporting losses exceeding $2.9 billion in 2023 alone. The case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide DOJ initiative focused on immigration enforcement, organised crime, and violent crime.