The US has secured the extradition of Nigerian citizen Abiola Kayode over wire fraud charges, the US Department of Justice said.
The 37-year-old had previously been on the Federal Bureau of Investigations’ (FBI) Most Wanted Cyber Criminal List.
Kayode was accused of sending false emails to employees of US firm where he posed as a business executive, telling them to wire funds to accounts he and his associates controlled.
“These bank accounts largely belonged to victims of internet romance scams, who were instructed by co-conspirators to transfer the funds to other bank accounts,” the federal Department of Justice’s District Attorney for the Midwestern state of Nebraska said.
Ghana extradites suspect after co-conspirators convicted
Ghanaian authorities granted a US request for extradition and handed him over to FBI special agents, according to the statement.
The suspect then appeared in court on Thursday and remains detained pending trial.
The district attorney’s office said that several co-conspirators had already been convicted, “with sentences ranging from 49-96 months and millions in restitution,” while others were yet to be apprehended.
The statement said that Ghanaian authorities assisted the FBI in investigations.