Obinwanne Okeke billionaire owner of Invictus Group, also known as Invictus Obi, on Thursday pleaded guilty to a computer based intrusion fraud scheme that caused $11 million in losses to his victims.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports 32-year-old Okeke, a Forbes celebrated billionaire, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the United States in 2019.
He has been prosecuted at several courts and pleaded not guilty on several occasions until now.
According to court documents, Okeke, aka Invictus Obi, and other conspirators engaged in a conspiracy from approximately 2015 to 2019 to conduct various computer based frauds.
The conspirators obtained and compiled the credentials of hundreds of victims, including victims in the Eastern District of Virginia in the US, and elsewhere.
As part of the scheme, Okeke and others engaged in an email compromise scheme targeting Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment.
In April 2018, a Unatrac executive fell prey to a phishing email that allowed conspirators to capture login credentials.
The conspirators sent fraudulent wire transfer requests and attached fake invoices.
Okeke participated in the effort to victimize Unatrac through fraudulent wire transfers totaling nearly $11 million, which funds were transferred overseas.
Okeke pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when sentenced on October 22.
Actual sentences for federal crimes in the US are typically less than the maximum penalties.
A US federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Martin Culbreth, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert J. Krask accepted the plea.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Samuels and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Mattis are prosecuting the case.