Two former members of the United States Air Force were sentenced to a combined 189 months in federal prison for their roles in a multi-year series of business email compromise (BEC) scams and phishing campaigns.
According to court documents, 25-year-old Chijioke Timothy Odimegwu and 26-year-old Harafat Mogaji carried out these attacks while stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
They stole victims' employee email credentials in spamming and phishing campaigns. The defendants then used "spoofed" email addresses that mimicked business partners' emails, along with the credentials, to redirect payments to accounts controlled by accomplices in the United States and abroad.
Odimegwu and Mogaji also made financial transactions without the victims' knowledge using their stolen financial information (e.g., account information, personal identification numbers, and credit and debit card numbers) and additional data bought from their partners in crime.
"Working with co-conspirators both in the United States and abroad, Odimegwu and Mogaji fraudulently diverted a more than $1.68 million wire sent by a victim in Iowa City, Iowa, to a bank account in Chicago controlled by the conspiracy," the Department of Justice said in a Tuesday press release.
"They also diverted a more than $720,000 wire sent by a victim in Ohio to a bank account controlled by the conspiracy. These are in addition to many other attempts Odimegwu and Mogaji made to divert wire transfers made by businesses in Iowa and across the country."