Nigerian, Ugandan sentenced for email scam hitting Iowa company

Two men charged in an email scam that cost an Iowa company and other victims as much as $10 million have received years-long federal prison sentences.

Emmanuel Ogbeide, 28, a Nigerian national living in Dallas, was sentenced by an Iowa federal judge on Jan. 18 to more than seven years in prison. That comes after his father, 50-year-old Kingsley Ogbeide of Uganda, was sentenced in September to more than 10 years. Emmanuel Ogbeide’s girlfriend, Vemuna Katjaimo, also was charged in the conspiracy and was sentenced in September to time served.

The three were accused of using falsified emails to trick businesses into sending money intended for other companies to them instead. Such so-called business email compromise scams are a growing cybersecurity threat, with the FBI reporting nearly 280,000 incidents costing companies almost $51 billion from 2013 to 2022.

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In court filings, prosecutors say the defendants, led by Kingsley Ogbeide, defrauded at least 14 companies over many months, costing the victims between $3.5 million and $9.5 million. At least one of those victims was based in Iowa, with prosecutors saying a Muscatine company wired more than $265,000 meant to pay legitimate invoices to an account controlled by the scammers.

In addition to receiving prison sentences, the defendants have been ordered to pay nearly $1.6 million in restitution to victims.

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William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com or 715-573-8166.