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Woodberry: Over $15m stolen from US companies converted to Bitcoin may not be recovered – FBI says

The FBI, alongside Police from Dubai, busted a massive business email compromise scheme ran by Nigerian fraudster called Woodberry. He has reportedly converted the money into Bitcoin and it might not be recoverable.

According to the FBI, the $15.3 million that Woodberry stole from two Chicago-based firms might not be recovered because the funds were converted to Bitcoin.

1st News had reported that Olalekan Jacob Ponle, nicknamed Woodberry, organized large-scale business email compromise (BEC) schemes.

He targeted employees of two Chicago-based firms; and manipulated them to conduct unauthorised transfers to his accounts.

BEC schemes represent phishing-like attacks that target employees by sending them spoof emails that fraudulently represent senior executives.

Woodberry made company workers believe the email messages came from their chief account officers.

He was arrested last week by the Dubai Police along with Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, and ten others as a result of the special operation Fox Hunt 2.

The group allegedly ran a cyber-fraud worth about $44 million. The scheme was global and involved 1.9 million victims.

All arrested members, including Woodberry, have been extradited to the US. They now face charges of conspiracy to commit fraud.

Even though Ponle is in the hands of the US law enforcement, the FBI reportedly said in an affidavit (a statement for use as evidence in court) that the stolen funds Ponle converted to Bitcoin may not be recovered.

The FBI specified that the scammer received over $15 million from the two companies between January and September of last year.

It didn’t specify why the two US firms might not recover the stolen funds. However, it most likely has to do with blockchain’s immutability; and the fact that Ponle is the only person who has access to the private keys related to those funds.

The FBI said that one of the two companies was defrauded of $2.3 million; while the other one lost over $15 million, part of which was eventually moved to a Bitcoin wallet. The affidavit reads:

“Preliminary blockchain analysis indicates that PONLE received at least 1,494.71506296 bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at approximately $6,599,499.98.”

“These schemes resulted in attempted and actual losses to victim companies in the tens of millions. PONLE directed money mules in the US to open bank accounts in the names of victim companies,” the statement added.

The funds from BEC schemes were then transferred by unsuspecting employees to the bank accounts opened by Ponle’s mules.

Ponle then required the mules to exchange the proceeds into Bitcoin and send them to his wallet.

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