Ghanaian Citizen Maxwell Peter Extradited in Connection with Prosecution of Africa-Based Cybercrime
A Ghanaian citizen residing in Tamale, Ghana, has been extradited to stand trial for an indictment charging him with wire fraud, money laundering, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the
Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant of
the Western District of Tennessee, and Special Agent in Charge Douglas Korneski
of the FBI’s Memphis Field Office made the announcement.
On Aug. 23, 2017, a federal grand jury in the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Tennessee indicted Maxwell Peter, 27, whose
given name is Maxwell Atugba Abayeta, and others with conspiracy to commit wire
fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit
computer fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Following his extradition, Peter’s initial appearance was made Tuesday
before U.S. Magistrate Judge Charmiane G. Claxton for the Western District of
Tennessee.
The indictment alleges that various Africa-based
co-conspirators committed, or caused to be committed, a series of intrusions
into the servers and email systems of a Memphis-based real estate company in
June and July 2016. Using sophisticated
anonymization techniques, including the use of spoofed email addresses and
Virtual Private Networks, the co-conspirators identified large financial transactions,
initiated fraudulent email correspondence with relevant business parties and
then redirected closing funds through a network of U.S.-based money mules to
final destinations in Africa. Commonly
referred to as business-email compromise, or BEC, this aspect of the scheme
caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to companies and individuals
in Memphis. The defendant is
specifically alleged to have directed the transfer of funds from a June 2016
BEC to a co-conspirator in Africa.
U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said: “Frauds perpetrated
through the Internet cause significant financial harm to businesses and
individuals in our District and throughout the United States. Because those committing Internet fraud often
involve foreign nationals and others who hide behind technology, the cases are
difficult – but not impossible – to investigate. With this extradition, this foreign defendant
will now face justice in an American courtroom here in Memphis.”
In addition to BEC, the defendant is also charged with
perpetrating romance scams, fraudulent-check scams, gold-buying scams,
advance-fee scams and credit card scams.
The indictment alleges that the proceeds of these criminal activities,
both money and goods, were shipped and/or transferred from the United States to
locations in Africa through a complex network of both complicit and unwitting
individuals that had been recruited through the various Internet scams. The defendant is specifically alleged to have
created and used the alias “Sandra Lin” in furtherance of these crimes. From May through June of 2017, Peter is
alleged to have communicated with an FBI agent acting in an undercover capacity
to receive the proceeds of fraud. Along
with his coconspirators over the life of the conspiracy, the defendant is
believed to have caused millions of dollars in losses to victims across the
globe.
An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is
presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of
law.
Seven other individuals have pleaded guilty to being
involved in these schemes. Benard E.
Okorhi, 41, was extradited in March 2020 from Canada, and is detained pending
trial. Two others, Olufalojimi Abegunde,
33, and Javier Luis Ramos-Alonso, 30, were convicted in March after a seven-day
trial in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Abegunde received a 78-month sentence and
Ramos-Alonso received a 31-month sentence for their roles in the scheme. Several individuals remain at large.
The FBI led the investigation. The Justice Department’s Office of
International Affairs, as well as the FBI’s Legal Attaché in Accra, the FBI
Transnational Organized Crime of the Eastern Hemisphere Section of the Criminal
Investigative Division, the FBI’s Major Cyber Crimes Unit of the Cyber Division,
FBI’s Money Laundering, Forfeiture, and Bank Fraud Unit of the Criminal
Investigative Division, and FBI’s International Organized Crime Intelligence
and Operations Center all provided significant support in this case, as did the
U.S. Marshals Service, INTERPOL Washington, the INTERPOL Unit of the Ghana
Police Service, the Republic of Ghana’s Office of the Attorney-General &
Ministry of Justice, and Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office.
Senior Trial Attorney Timothy C. Flowers of the Criminal Division’s
Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney
Debra L. Ireland of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of
Tennessee are prosecuting the case.
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