By Adedapo Adesanya
The Chief Executive Officer of Invictus Group, Mr Obinwanne Okeke, who made it into Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 List in 2016, has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for conspiracy to commit computer fraud.
Mr Okeke was arrested by the FBI over $11 million wire fraud after an Office365 account belonging to a steel company’s CEO was hacked. The suspect was said to have conspired with several individuals to access the CEO’s computers without authorization.
According to an affidavit released by the FBI and signed by Mr Marshall Ward, a Special Agent of US agency, said Mr Okeke’s intention, alongside other conspirators, was to initiate a fraudulent transfer of funds. Mr Ward stated that the Nigerian should be charged for conspiracy to commit computer fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
A deeper outlook into the investigation revealed that the FBI was contacted by the representatives of Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and firm equipment, last year after they experienced a fraudulent wire transfer of $11 million through an email compromise.
The affidavit further disclosed that Unatrac’s Chief Financial Officer received a phishing email containing a web link in April 2018, purportedly to the login page of the CFO’s online email account hosted by Microsoft Office365. Upon opening the link, he was directed to a phishing website crafted to imitate the legitimate Office365 login page.
Believing the page was real, the CFO provided his login details which were captured by an unknown intruder who controlled the spoofed web page. Between April 6 and April 20, 2018, the intruder accessed the CFO’s account at least 464 times, mostly from Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in Nigeria.
The report led to an investigation which began in July 2018 after the FBI reviewed the submitted documents.
With the recent development, Mr Okeke, who had been celebrated as one of Nigeria’s most promising entrepreneurs after he was selected among Africa’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs by Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 For 2016, has seen many associates distancing themselves from him.
Bella Naija, a fashion publication, which did a feature on Mr Okeke has since deleted the featured post. It is left to be seen if other media houses will follow suit.
Also, some of his friends are reportedly deleting his pictures on their social media pages as well in order not to be caught as his associates.
The social media accounts of Mr Okeke, who is popularly called Invictusobi, have since been deleted. He bagged a BA Degree in International Studies & Forensic Criminology, and a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Counter-Terrorism Studies
According to Forbes Magazine, Mr Okeke has 28 permanent and 100 part-time employees across nine companies.
