Nigerian ‘tech entrepreneur’ jailed for fraud

Martins Egenamba appeared to be living the life of a young and successful tech entrepreneur, driving a Ford Mustang and brainstorming new business ideas with an unsuspecting neighbour. However, the Nigerian businessman was the mastermind behind a sophisticated scheme raking in millions of dollars from victims in the US and SA through business e-mail compromise (BEC) fraud, a form of cybercrime. Investigators from the Hawks special investigations team, with the help of the SA Cyber Fraud Task Team, tracked the theft of about $862 200 from victims in the US and SA. The Sunday Times reports that local authorities were alerted to Egenamba’s involvement by authorities in the US, where a string of suspects are on trial in connection with the same scheme. The funds were stolen in three BEC scams in which US-based companies’ invoices were intercepted between September 2020 and February 2021. The fraudsters changed the bank account details on these invoices to accounts controlled by them. The money would eventually be sent from the US to an FNB account belonging to Egenamba’s SA company Barlon d’Or Group. Egenamba was convicted of fraud in the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court and sentenced to 15 years in jail for his dealings in the local arm of the international fraud scheme.