TAMPA — It started with a complaint about a clever check-fraud scam that had bilked a small Georgia law firm out of nearly $100,000. The money wound up in a bank account in Tampa but then vanished into other accounts overseas, spurring the interest of local FBI agents.

What followed was an investigation that has stretched on now for six years, ensnared 13 defendants and uprooted a complex international fraud scheme responsible for losses in excess of $10 million, agents and federal prosecutors say.

The probe reached its zenith last month when a man who who helped orchestrate the scheme appeared in a Tampa courtroom to face a sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

Ikechuwku “Ike” Amadi, 38, is a dual Canadian and Nigerian citizen. He worked, according to the FBI, with a Nigeria-based criminal organization known as the BlackAxeGroup.

The conspirators “sit in Internet cafes in Nigeria and conduct fraud online,” said FBI Special Agent Devin Williams, who headed the investigation.

The started as a fraternal organization on college campuses in Nigeria in the 1970s. It eventually evolved into an organized crime group. In the United States and around the world, the group is responsible for the loss of millions of dollars through a variety of elaborate cons.

They include what are known as “romance scams,” where conspirators pose as potential suitors on dating websites. They follow detailed scripts to gradually charm their victims, often lonely widows. In some cases, the fraudsters conduct research about the victim’s hometown and claim to live in an area nearby. The aim is to eventually lure victims with a phony investment opportunity, convincing them to cash in their retirement savings or home equity and wire it into a bank account in the United States.

Other scams targeted title companies with phony cashier’s checks for fake real estate transactions. Still others targeted businesses and law firms through email spoofing and hacking schemes.......

Read more

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2019/11/11/a-tampa-fraud-cause-helped-reveal-the--a-scheme-from-nigeria/