CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A man extradited from the United Kingdom has pleaded guilty less than two years after being accused of defrauding a North Carolina university and others out of millions of dollars.
The offices of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and the Southern District of Texas announced that 45-year-old Oudayo Kolawole John Adeagbo admitted to committing wire fraud conspiracy as part of business email compromise (BEC) schemes from 2016 through 2018. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison each for both cases and will be required to pay a money judgement and restitution in the full amount of the victims' losses, alleged to be more than $14 million.
Adeagbo was one of two Nigerian nationals charged in the scheme. They were extradited from the UK in 2022 to face the charges in the United States.
Adeagbo and his co-defendant, 42-year-old Donald Ikenna Echeazu, defrauded Appalachian State University for roughly $1.9 million by impersonating a legitimate construction firm via email. Adeagbo and Echeazu used information obtained about a project App State was working on with the firm, then registered a domain and created an email address that was similar to that of the firm and one of its employees. They directed App State to wire them money to an account controlled by a third man in California, who was charged elsewhere.
After getting the money, Adeagbo and Echeazu laundered it through several transactions meant to hide the fraud.
Adeagbo also stole more than $3 million from groups in Texas in a separate incident, including a Houston-area college and municipal governments. He did so by running a similar BEC scheme, impersonating companies and directing their customers to wire him money.
Echeazu was previously sentenced to 18 months in prison along with a year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay more than $655,000 in restitution for his role.
Adeagbo and Echeazu were arrested in the UK in 2020. They were originally set to be brought to the US in 2021 but appealed the extradition. The UK's High Court rejected the appeal the following year.
The U.S. Department of Justice urges anyone who thinks they were a victim of a BEC scheme to file a complaint online with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. More information on these schemes can be viewed online.
App State is located in the city of Boone, North Carolina, roughly 100 miles northwest of Charlotte. The university previously told WCNC Charlotte it was able to recoup most of the funds lost in the scheme.