U.S. Seizes $1.5 Million Linked To Nigerian Fraudster Avwerosuo Omokri - Crime
U.S. Secret Service seizes $1.5 million linked to Nigerian fraudster Omokri’s Binance crypto account
The
secret service sought forfeiture of the seized $1.5 million, having
established they were proceeds of wire fraud and money laundering.
The U.S. Secret Service seized $1.5 million from the Binance wallet of Nigerian serial fraudster Avwerosuo Omokri after numerous complaints from victims triggered a detailed investigation into the suspect’s activities and bank records.
Special
agent Katrina Caulfield uncovered the operations of an internet fraud
syndicate, running fraudulent trading investment platforms to lure
unsuspecting victims. She was seeking a forfeiture in rem of the seized
funds, documents seen by Peoples Gazette showed.
Victim 1, a
resident of Newton in Massachusetts, March 2024, filed an internet crime
complaint form to seek help after she fell for a cryptocurrency scam
where she lost 1.33272285 BTC.
She told Ms Caulfield that she
joined a group on Facebook in February 2024 named ‘Financial
Independence Forum’, where members were promised “financial independence
and early retirement through reliable investment.”
Victim 1, who
was not named, said she soon began to connect with the members of the
Facebook group, including Tom Sheldon Haley. They began to exchange
messages on Facebook Messenger.
Mr Haley, an administrator of the
group, portrayed himself as an investment expert versed in online
trading. Their chats became frequent, and she was asked to invest in
Trade Propel, an investment platform that promised high returns.
Mr Haley sent her detailed steps on how to create a new account on Trade Propel.
On
March 13, 2024, Victim 1 transferred 1.3 BTC from Coinbase to a
destination wallet provided by the Facebook group administrator.
After
some time, she observed her deposit had increased on the website and
tried to withdraw the funds, only to be told by Trade Propel customer
support that she must pay “tax on earnings” before initiating
withdrawal.
The U.S. Secret Service special agent said the demand
for more money for investors to access their funds was typical of many
scammers, as they often tried to squeeze every penny out of victims.
“Based
on my training and experience, I know that scammers often attempt to
extract additional funds from victims by instructing victims to pay
‘taxes’ to the scammers before the victims can withdraw funds,” said Ms
Caulfield in her submission.
Checks on the Trade Propel website
ticked all the fraud boxes as the Secret Service special agent said she
could not find any relevant company information, policies and company
contact details.
Instead, the website had bios of hedge fund
billionaires George Soros, Paul Tudor, and Ray Dialo, claiming that the
trio co-signed Trade Propel.
“Also, the website falsely claims to
be part of FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) and SIPC
(Securities Investor Protection Corporation),” wrote the U.S. Secret
Service special agent.
Ms Caulfield said the platform owner went
to great lengths to make the website look legitimate for the purpose of
defrauding people.
A money trail by the Secret Service showed how
the syndicate immediately transferred the victim’s 1.3 BTC to an
intermediary wallet before sending it to another wallet ending in
–HKbIS.
Intermediary wallets are often used by fraudsters to
disguise and clean up illicit money trails on the Blockchain in order to
throw security agencies off their scent.
“Intermediary wallets
support the movement of illicitly obtained funds as they help to conceal
and disguise the source of the BTC by layering and severing straight
line coordinates of transaction activity on the Blockchain to cash out
exchangers,” Ms Caulfied stated in her motion seeking forfeiture.
However,
the Secret Service special agent was able to bypass all the layering
and cover-ups to track the bitcoin to its final destination wallet.
Account
records for user ID ending in XXXXX3280 obtained from Binance showed
that the wallet was registered to Nigerian passport holder Avwerosuo
Omokri with the registered email address johnrichie513@gmail.com.
Coinbase
provided information that showed additional victims had paid into the
same intermediary wallet of the fraud syndicate. Victim 2 paid $ 29,000,
while Victim 3 paid $35,000. The fourth victim was instructed to pay
into a different intermediary wallet.
Further investigations
revealed that the Tom Sheldon Haley’s Facebook account was not operated
by one person but by a fraud syndicate that often deployed the rank and
files to approach victims on social media platforms, including Facebook
and LinkedIn.
The higher-level fraudsters were the ones on the
wallet backends receiving and trying to cover up illicit money flows.
Binance records showed that Mr Omokri’s syndicate used four different
devices to access the wallets.
Ms Caulfield, on February 16,
2025, sought a forfeiture in rem of the seized $1.5 million, having
established that they were proceeds of wire fraud and money laundering.
The
seized funds include 7.23918814 BTC1, 105.75351403 ETH2, 636.11899592
AVAX3, 14120.995091 USDT4; 2380467906.17 SHIB and 319008151.01 PEPE.
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