A U.S. District Judge, James Gwin, has sentenced a Nigerian national, identified as Blessing Adeleke to three years imprisonment for fraud.
NIGERIACRIME gathered that the 31-year-old convict, who was arrested in Ghana in March 2022 was found guilty of conspiracy to obtain stolen financial information, fraudulent purchases of retail goods and gift cards and stealing funds from bank accounts in Northern Ohio and elsewhere.
In October 2022, Adeleke was convicted by a jury in October 2022 of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and 16 counts of bank fraud.
According to court documents, between January 2014 through October 2016, Adeleke served as an administrator for an online marketplace, Shad0w.info, where compromised data, such as credit numbers and personally identifiable information (PII), were sold.
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It was learnt that the convict the information in the stolen card to her clients, which includes co-defendant, Kylie Ann Harlow.
The defendants were found guilty of shipping goods purchased with victims’ money and in some instances, returned the goods and gift cards to obtain cash.
Adeleke gained access to at least one bank account belonging to a victim in Pepper Pike, Ohio, from which she sent 16 fraudulent checks.
Harlow was sentenced in June 2021 after pleading guilty to her role in the scheme investigated by the Cleveland FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Deckert and Daniel Riedl.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs provided significant support and assistance in securing the defendant’s arrest and extradition from Ghana. The U.S. Department of Justice thanks its Ghanian partners, specifically the Ministry of Interior and the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice, for supporting this extradition. The FBI Legal Attaché in Accra and the U.S. Marshals Service also provided significant support and assistance to Adeleke’s extradition.