FBI Declares Nigerian Man Wanted in Connection with $5M Scam

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI,
has declared a Nigerian, Kelechi Declan James,
wanted.
The FBI made this known on its Twitter handle
and its website on Friday.
According to the FBI, the accused has federal
criminal charges against him from an
investigation by FBI New York’s Cyber Crime
Task Force.
As alleged in a complaint sworn out of the
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York, Mr. James, along with four other
co-conspirators, ran an e-mail compromise
scheme that resulted in losses of more than $5
million for their victims.
As part of scheme, the suspect and his co-
conspirators allegedly defrauded victims
across the U.S. by tricking them into wiring
money to bank accounts the victims believed
were owned by friends or business associates.
They did this in two ways: by overtaking an e-
mail account of an individual trusted by the
victim and then requesting money be wired to
a bank account; or by developing a
relationship of trust with victim like an Internet
romance and then asking the victim to wire
money, the American agency said.
As soon as the money was wired, it would be
moved from one account to another, and the
funds would be withdrawn. Mr. James’s role
in this scheme was to withdraw the money
from bank accounts, the FBI said.
“James is known to frequent the Brooklyn
neighborhoods of East New York (Crescent
Street and Loring Avenue; Vermont Street
between Blake Avenue and Dumont Avenue),
Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant (MacDougal
and Hull Streets), Crown Heights (Park Place
and Utica Avenue), Flatbush (E 29th and
Avenue D), and East Flatbush (East 51st and
Winthrop Street),” the agency said.
The FBI offered a $1,000 reward for
information that leads to his arrest.