Nigerian jailed eight years in US for stealing $7.5m from charities

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A Nigerian national, Olusegun Adejorin, has been sentenced to eight years in prison in the United States for using a business email compromise scheme to steal more than $7.5m from two charitable organisations.

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The United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland disclosed this in a statement posted on its website on Friday.

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US District Judge Theodore Chuang sentenced Adejorin, 32, to 96 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and unauthorised access to a protected computer to obtain information.

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation extradited Adejorin from Ghana to the US in August 2024 to stand trial in the case.

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A federal jury convicted him of all charges in December 2025 following a six-day trial.

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Citing evidence presented at trial, the attorney’s office said, “Adejorin perpetrated a scheme to defraud Victim 1, a charitable organization located in Maryland, that provided investment services to other organisations.

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“Additionally, through the scheme, Adejorin defrauded Victim 2, a charitable organization located in New York, by gaining access to employee email accounts and impersonating employees to induce financial transactions.

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“Among the acts in furtherance of the fraud scheme, Adejorin registered spoofed domain names, which he used to pose as employees of Victim 2 to request withdrawals of Victim 2’s funds from Victim 1.

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“Adejorin also fraudulently obtained access to email accounts of Victim 1, which he used to send emails falsely confirming the fraudulent requests made in Victim 2’s name.

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“He ultimately caused more than $7.5 million of Victim 2’s funds to be sent, pursuant to the fraudulent withdrawal requests, from Victim 1 to bank accounts that were not Victim 2’s bank accounts.”

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US Attorney for the District of Maryland, Kelly Hayes, announced the sentence alongside FBI Baltimore Field Office Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul.

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Hayes commended the FBI Baltimore Field Office for its work in the investigation, as well as the FBI Legal Attaché in Accra, Ghana, and several Ghanaian agencies that assisted with the case.

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The US Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs worked with Ghana’s Office of the Attorney-General to secure Adejorin’s extradition to the US.

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The case was prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Joshua Rosenthal and Darren Gardner.

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