The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been tasked by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States of America to locate and apprehend two Nigerians, Babatunde Shodiya and Yinka Jamiu, who were listed as wanted for allegedly using a fraudulent website to extort American medical facilities in Minnesota of $13m.
A grand jury in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota arraigned them on September 25 for their involvement in a fraud conspiracy that deceived many healthcare providers between October 2020 and 2024.
According to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, Shodiya and Jamiu allegedly used falsified websites and email addresses to manipulate payment transfers on Optum Pay, a popular payment system among Minnesota’s healthcare providers under the guise of being owned by Fairview Health.
Using these fictitious email addresses, the fraud team sent emails to Fairview Health staff, deceiving them into supplying login information.
They created a counterfeit website, fairviewhospitals.org, and pretended to be key hospital personnel, including the CEO, executive vice president, and a business analyst.
In addition to the wire fraud allegations, Shodiya is charged with aggravated identity theft for pretending to be Fairview executives.
Luger said, “As part of the scheme, Babatunde and Jamiu created a fake ‘spoofed’ internet domain designed to appear as though it was controlled by Fairview Health.”
“In total, Babatunde and Ahmed fraudulently directed more than $13m in payments intended for Fairview Health from Minnesota-based healthcare companies to accounts controlled by Babatunde, Ahmed, and their co-conspirators.”
However, the U.S. security agency has confirmed that the suspects are Nigerian citizens who also reside in Nigeria and have called on Nigeria’s EFCC to seek their assistance.
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“The U.S. officials reached out to us and informed us that the suspects are believed to be hiding in Nigeria
“We have a duty to honour this request in line with our long-standing collaboration with the U.S. in addressing cross-border crimes,” an EFCC officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation, said.
Once the EFCC successfully hunts down Mr Shodiya and Mr Jamiu, they will be taken to the U.S. to face trial while also compromising all assets linked to the profits of the crime to the American authorities.
