A 35-year-old Nigerian National, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi is currently facing a jail term of up to 20 years in the US after pleading guilty to defrauding employees of a Sri Lankan produce exporter.
Umeadi’s Offence
Umeadi who was arrested on September 1, 2024 on his arrival in Germany from Nigeria, admitted to soliciting and purchasing a webpage from a computer hacker that allowed him to illegally gain access to people’s email passwords. Upon his arrest in Germany, he was extradited to the United States to face charges
Umeadi was said to have used those passwords to gain access to email accounts belonging to employees of a produce exporter in Sri Lanka sending them fraudulent emails, which appeared to legitimately come from the produce exporter but were in fact from an email account set up and controlled by Umeadi, directing payment on the Sri Lankan company’s accounts receivable be made to bank accounts in the United Kingdom, controlled by Umeadi.
On two occasions in 2016, a produce importer in Plattsburgh, New York, is said to have fallen prey and wired money, totaling $158,400, to those bank accounts in the United Kingdom.
Court Date
Umeadi’s sentencing is scheduled for July 21, 2025 and if convicted of the charges, he faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years after which he faces removal from the United States.
