Four Nigerians have been arrested in the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden for committing cyber fraud and theft of public funds in the United States (US).

This was announced in a press release by the US Department of Justice on Monday, December 5, 2022, adding that each defendant faces a minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

The defendants – Akinola Taylor, Olayemi Adafin, Olakunle Oyenbanjo and Kazeem Olanrewaju Runsewe were also charged with aggravated identity theft and their crime was transnational in nature, Vanguard reports.

The statement read: “United States (US) Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the dismissal of four indictments charging Akinola Taylor (Nigeria), Olayemi Adafin (UK), Olakunle Oyebanjo (Nigeria) and Kazeem Olanrewaju Runsewe (Nigeria), with conspiracy to commit fraud, filing false claims with the United States, theft of public money or property, and aggravated identity theft.

Taylor, Adafin and Runsewe were each arrested on 30 November 2022 and Oyebanjo was arrested on 1 December 2022. Taylor, Adafin and Oyebanjo were arrested in London, UK and Runswewe was arrested in Malmö, Sweden. Each will face extradition proceedings. In connection with the arrests, foreign authorities searched Taylor’s and Runsew’s residences.”

“If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison on the fraud count, as well as additional penalties on the remaining counts. The indictments also state accused that the United States intends to forfeit assets allegedly traceable to the proceeds of the crime.

It continued, “According to the allegations, Taylor and Runsewe gained unauthorized access to U.S. corporate computer servers, participated in stealing personally identifiable information of U.S. residents from those servers, and used that information to file false and fraudulent Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1040 , United States Individual Income Tax Returns (“Form(s) 1040”) seeking a refund of income tax from the IRS.

“Adafin and Oyebanjo assisted in the collection fraud proceeds directed to prepaid debit cards in their possession or to addresses or bank accounts they controlled or to which they had access and transferred a portion of the fraud proceeds to other conspirators.

“One of the places Taylor and Runsewe had gained unauthorized access to computer servers was the xDedic Marketplace, a website that had existed for years and was used to sell access to compromised computers worldwide and personally identifiable information about US residents. The xDedic administrators strategically entertained servers worldwide to facilitate the operation of the website.

“XDedic Marketplace was taken down as part of coordinated, global enforcement operations led by the FBI (Tampa Division), IRS-CI (Tampa Field Office) and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.”