The FBI is gunning for Tobe Onwuhara, who they say bilked banks out of at least $44 million.

The FBI says Tobechi Onwuhara is part of a group of Nigerians who they say are using online internet databases to steal victims' identities to the tune of $44 million.
FBI: Fraud Mastermind Still On The Run
The FBI says Tobechi Onwuhara is a criminal
mastermind. They say in less than three years,
Onwuhara was able to steal $44 million from banks
across the country, going nearly undetected by
authorities. But Onwuhara did not live the quiet life.
According to sources, Onwuhara lived a lavish
lifestyle, spending money on high ends cars,
jewelry and his favorite pastime -- strippers.
Agents say Onwuhara was essentially groomed for
a life of crime. Born in Houston, Onwuhara was sent
to live with his wealthy father in Nigeria before he
was a teenager. Onwuhara’s father, Prince Doris
Onwuhara, was a well-known con man who made a
fortune in the notorious 419 scheme. The 419
scammers essentially fish for victims by sending
random e-mails to accounts around the world. The
e-mail usually tells the tale of a wealthy
businessman or member of royalty who needs to
desperately get money out of a country. The victims
fall for the scam because they are promised a cut of
the e-mail sender’s millions in exchange for a bank
account number or a cash deposit for administration
fees.
Onwuhara returned to the United States around
1999 as a young man. He settled in Texas and
started work at the Capital One Financial
Corporation. Agents believe this job gave Onwuhara
unique insight into the American banking system,
and they say within a short time, Onwuhara was
putting his skills to use and started stealing credit
card numbers.
In April 2002, Onwuhara was arrested in Lewisville,
Texas, when police got a tip that he may be using
fraudulent identification to steal money from stolen
credit card numbers. Police raided his apartment
and found fake driver’s licenses, credit card account
numbers and material used to make fake
identification. Police estimated that Onwuhara and
another co-conspirator stole as much as $200,000 in
just a few months.
But it would not be Onwuhara’s only arrest that
year. In December, Onwuhara walked into a Seattle
bank and tried to max out the cash withdrawal limit
on a stolen credit card. When Onwuhara fled the
bank, he jumped into a car driven by Abel Nnabue.
The duo led police on a high-speed chase but was
eventually apprehended when they tried to flee on
foot.
Onwuhara and Nnabue were sentenced to two years
in prison.
The Next Big Scam
Onwuhara and Nnabue only served eight months of
their two-year sentence, and they relocated to
Texas after their release. In 2005, the real estate
market was hitting all-time highs. Agents say
Onwuhara decided to target Home Equity Lines of
Credit. However, unlike credit cards, HELOCS were
much harder to steal.
But police say Onwuhara slowly found a solution,
getting lists of homeowners in moderate-to-upscale
communities across the country. From there, the FBI
says he would research the homeowner’s credit
reports, which told Onwuhara whether the
homeowner had opened a HELOC account and how
much money was in it. During the real estate boom
it would not be uncommon for a homeowner to have
more than $200,000 to $300,000 in home equity.
However, banks still had many safeguards in place
to prevent fraud. Onwuhara was able to get around
these safeguards by learning everything about his
victims. He could easily get simple passwords, such
as city of birth or mother’s maiden name, off the
Internet. Agents say what was unique was how
Onwuhara was able to manipulate phone services.
Onwuhara and his crew of co-conspirators would
only use pre-paid phone and pre-paid wireless
Internet cards, preventing authorities from tracking
phones back to them. But they would also utilize
spoofing services to call the banks. The spoofing
service allowed Onwuhara to make the victim’s
home phone number appear on the bank
representative’s caller ID.
Authorities say Onwuhara made most of the phone
calls to the banks, but if the caller needed to be
female, his girlfriend Precious Matthews would
make the call. Other co-conspirators would be
tasked with researching new victims to pull off the
scam.
Once they got access into the account, police say
that’s when they'd transfer the money to the
homeowner's checking account. This would not set
off any alarms at the bank. Within a few hours,
Onwuhara would then transfer the money to
accounts in Asia, and then the money would go to a
Hawala in Africa. Hawalas are money transferring
systems that work on trust rather than regulations.
Brokers, or hawaladars, would take a cut and then
transfer the money into an African bank, eventually
returning to a U.S. bank. Most of the money coming
back to the United States came through a bank
account belonging to Precious Matthews or one of
the other co-conspirators.
The Perfect Scam Comes To An End
By the time the scam came to the attention of the
FBI, Onwuhara and his crew had already taken
nearly $20 million, and because the scammer had a
foolproof system, they would take another $20
million before agents learned their identity.
But when the FBI gets involved, no system is
foolproof. When agents learned the crew was using
prepaid wireless connections, they contacted the
providers, and one was able to give the FBI
surveillance video of three individuals prepaying
with cash.
The FBI got their next break in spring 2008 when
they learned the crew was using a spoofing service.
Those companies record all phone calls that are
used via their service to prevent illegal activity.
Now the FBI had 1,500 phone recordings to listen to,
hoping to find one nugget of information leading
them to the crew's identity.
While most of the calls were to bank, one call did
eventually stick out. Someone in Onwuhara's crew
pretended to be a doctor and called in a prescription
to a pharmacy in the name of Tobechi Onwuhara.
When the FBI ran his name, they realized Onwuhara
had been arrested in 2002 for bank fraud.
The FBI compared his arrest photos to the
surveillance video and felt it was a match, but they
needed more information on his crew.
To find out about the co-conspirators, the FBI
needed to find Onwuhara, and they realized he'd
left Miami, stopped in New York for a bit and then
flew to Nigeria.
FBI agents assigned to the case decided to stop
Onwuhara and his travel companions as they
returned from Nigeria. Onwuhara had changed his
flight several times, giving the FBI reason to
conduct a secondary security screening when they
arrived through customs. They wanted Onwuhara to
believe he was being questioned as a possible
terrorist. Onwuhara fell for the trap and gave up
information that would eventually link him to the
crime.
In the summer 2008, the FBI felt they had enough
evidence to take Onwuhara and his crew down.
They knew Onwuhara was staying at a mansion
near Miami. Although she was a college student,
Precious Matthews was paying the $5,000 month
mortgage on the house.
On Aug. 1, 2008, FBI agents and local police tailed
Matthews and Onwuhara from the house to a Florida
casino. As they approached the casino, authorities
made their move and detained the crew – but
Onwuhara wasn’t with them. While the other arrests
were being made, the agents learned Matthews
texted Onwuhara about the take down. It’s believed
Onwuhara was in the casino at the time.
Agents say Onwuhara is well-traveled and may
have hidden millions away in foreign banks.
Because Onwuhara was an out-of-control spender, it
is hard to tell where the money went. Officials say
Onwuhara would spend $50,000 a night in strip
clubs up to three times a week. He also stayed at
five-star hotels and casinos whenever he traveled.
They know Onwuhara was in the process of building
a luxury home in Nigeria and had several expensive
cars shipped there -- all paid in cash.
Onwuhara's co-conspirators have already been
sentenced in this case:
Henry "Uche" Obilo, 30, Miami: Sentenced to 88
months in prison.
Abel Nnabue, 34, Dallas: Sentenced to 54 months
on Jan. 30, 2009.
Onwuhara’s girlfriend, 27-year-old Precious
Matthews: Sentenced to 51 months on Feb. 13,
2009.
Brandy Anderson, 31, of Dallas: Sentenced to two
years of supervised probation and 40 days of
community confinement on Feb. 20, 2009.
Ezenwa Onyedebelu, 21, Dallas: Sentenced to 37
months on Feb. 27, 2009.
Daniel Orjinta, 43, Nigeria: Sentenced to 42
months on March 6, 2009.
Paula Gipson, 34, Dallas, Sentenced to 15 months
on Sept. 4, 2009.
The FBI is offering $25,000 to anyone with
information leading to Onwuhara's arrest.

Йą wa! God help us!

Its cos of ppl like dis dt paypal nd odas placed a ban on nigerians...44mills $ dts d height of fraud

THE NEXT ABIA, DELTA, ANAMBRA, IMO, RIVERS GOVERNOR.......
IBORI PROVED TO THE WORLD THAT IT IS POSSIBLE IN NIGERIA

This is old news.