A Nigerian man has been found guilty of aiding in an attempt to defraud a law firm in North Dakota (USA) through false digital transfers.
In a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of North Dakota, United States Attorney Mac Schneider announced that on September 11, 2024, US District Court Judge Daniel M. Traynor sentenced Nigerian citizen Christopher Agbaje to serve 142 months’ imprisonment, and to pay $188,935.74 in restitution to a North Dakota law firm, on charges of:
1) Money Laundering;
2) Aiding and Abetting Wire Fraud; and
3) Aiding and Abetting Mail Fraud.
On May 16, 2024, after a four-day trial, a federal jury found Agbaje guilty on these charges while also finding him not guilty on charges of:
1) Wire Fraud; and
2) Mail Fraud.
In February 2024, Agbaje was extradited from the United Kingdom to North Dakota to face these charges. As demonstrated by evidence introduced at trial, between November and December 2020, Agbaje participated with others in a sophisticated scheme to defraud a North Dakota law firm out of $198,336.68. As part of this fraud scheme, individuals falsely purported to be a business owner in a legal dispute with a Bismarck, North Dakota, company and entered into a fictious attorney-client relationship with this law firm. Through email communications, these individuals made false statements and promises, upon which the law firm relied to their determinant. Thereafter, the law firm received a parcel containing a fraudulent Citibank check payable to the law firm in the amount of $198,850.00 and deposited this check in the law firm’s bank account. Subsequently, at the purported business owner’s request, the law firm sent a $198,336.68 wire transfer to Agbaje’s business partner.
A short time later, Agbaje directed his business partner to fraudulently initiate a $180,000.00 international wire transfer with the intent to conceal the location, ownership, and control of the law firm’s money. When Agbaje became aware that law enforcement was conducting a fraud investigation in connection with the wire transfer he and his business partner had received, Agbaje instructed his business partner to “press on,” gain “leverage,” and claim “naivety.”
