U.S. Authorities Indict Two Nigerians In $13M Business Email Compromise Scam

MINNEAPOLIS – Two Nigerian nationals have been indicted for engaging
in a fraudulent business email compromise scheme targeting several
Minnesota-based health care companies, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M.
Luger.According to court documents, from October 2020 through 2024, Shodiya
Babatunde, 43, and Jamui Ahmed, 31, devised and carried out a
fraudulent business email compromise scheme that targeted and deceived
employees of several Minnesota-based health care companies into making
payments to bank accounts controlled by Babatunde, Ahmed, and their
co-conspirators, rather than to the intended beneficiaries of the
payments.As part of the scheme, Babatunde and Ahmed created a
fake “spoofed” internet domain designed to appear as though it was
controlled by Fairview Health. Babatunde and Ahmed also created fake
email accounts designed to look as though they belonged to Fairview
Health executives, including the CEO, the Executive Vice President and
General Counsel, and a business analyst. Babatunde and Ahmed used the
fake emails to carry out a “phishing” scheme to fraudulently obtain
names, passwords, and access to payment accounts. The defendants also
used their spoofed accounts to email several other Minnesota-based
health insurance companies and provide new accounts into which such
payments intended for Fairview Health should be wired. Unbeknownst to
the vendor companies, the new accounts were actually controlled by
Babatunde and Ahmed and their co-conspirators, not Fairview Health. In
total, Babatunde and Ahmed fraudulently directed more than $13 million
in payments intended for Fairview Health from Minnesota-based health
care companies to accounts controlled by Babatunde, Ahmed, and their
co-conspirators.Babatunde and Ahmed are citizens and residents of Nigeria. They remain fugitives from justice.This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI.Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson is prosecuting the case.An
indictment is merely an allegation and the defendants are presumed
innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of
law.