Woodberry, an ally of Hushpuppi, pleaded guilty to defrauding at least seven companies of over $8 million in less than one year.
A notorious Nigerian online scammer, Olalekan Ponle, also known as Woodberry on Tuesday lost all his known assets to the United States government after a court in Ilinois jailed him for 100 months.
The sentence translates to eight years and four months of jail time.
Judge Robert Gentleman of the US District Court for Northern Illinois handed down the verdict on Tuesday, about three months after Woodberry pleaded guilty to defrauding at least seven companies of over $8 million in less than one year.
"The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a total term of One hundred (100) months as to count 1," Mr Gentleman ruled Tuesday.
Based on the plea agreement with US prosecutors in April, the court dismissed the rest of the seven counts in the original eight charges indictment filed against him.
The 100 months' imprisonment imposed by the judge is a downward review of 168 months or 14 years proposed by US prosecutors.
But the judge ruled out supervised release for him - shutting down any prospect of his early release from prison based on good conduct.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of the convict's known fortune, including luxury cars, Rolls Royce Cullinan and Lamborghini Urus, to the US government.
The forfeited assets include Rolex watches, gold bracelets, gold and diamond studded rings and neck chains. He will also forfeit cash in Emirati dirhams, among other assets.
With all his known assets forfeited to the US government, Woodberry will be deported to Nigeria empty-handed after completing his jail time and making full restitution of over $8 million in losses suffered by victims of his crimes, based on the court judgement.
Woodberry is well-known to be an ally of another Nigerian international fraudster, Ramon Abbas, alias Hushpuppi, who was jailed last year.
They were arrested in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on 10 June 2020, for extensive international online scams involving Business Email Compromise (BEC) schemes. They were flown to the United States to face separate trials.
BEC schemes involve scammers gaining unauthorised access into the email accounts of companies and businesses and using them to trick others to pay money into certain accounts.
In its sentencing memorandum submitted to the court ahead of Tuesday's judgement, the US government said Woodberry engaged in BECs while overseas, and used money mules in the US to conceal his identity and involvement.
US prosecutors accused him of "a series of significant BEC frauds, causing millions of dollars in losses and tens of millions of dollars in attempted losses to victim companies."
Woodberry intitially maintained his innocence for over two years.
But he made a U-turn to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud during a change of plea hearing at the trial court in April, according to court documents obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.
The judge accepted his change of plea in a ruling delivered on 6 April.
He set 11 July for sentencing after accepting the plea agreement Woodberry entered into with US prosecutors.
Where Woodberry will spend eight years of his life
In his judgement on Tuesday, the judge ordered Woodberry to spend his jail time in the FCI Danbury, a low security federal correctional institution with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp, in Connecticut.
He will be entitled to family visits in custody, the judge said.
The judge also ordered him to be surrendered to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for deportation immediately after completing his terms of imprisonment.
A resident of Dubai before his arrest, he will be deported to his home country, Nigeria, after completing his jail time.
Copies of his criminal monetary penalties, schedule of payments are to be mailed jis lawyer, Michael B. Nash.
Restitution and forfeiture
The judge ordered him to make restitution to some companies he defrauded to the tune of $8 million. He also ordered the forfeiture of some posh assets and cash he owned in Dubai to the US government.
Under the plea agreement he entered into with the US government in April, Woodberry pled guilty to only one count involving a $188,000 fraud he perpetrated against a company in New York, US.
But he admitted in the agreement that he owed a total of $8,038,214,.99 in restitution to seven victim companies in theamountss stated as follows:
*Victim Company A $2,300,000.00
*Victim Company B: $1,270,645.00
*Victim Company C: $350,000.00
*Victim Company E: $1,955,000.00
*Victim Company G: $1,044,569.99
*Victim Company H: $1,000,000.00
*Victim Company M $118,000.00
Besides agreeing to make restitution, he also agreed to forfeit to the United States any property "constituting or derived from proceeds obtained, directly or indirectly, as a result of the offence, and any property used, in any manner or part to commit the offence."
The court placed a preliminary forfeiture order on the assets after accepting Woodberry's guilty plea in a ruling in April.
The preliminary order of forfeiture order was made final on Tuesday.
Luxury cars, including Rolls Royce Cullinan and Lamborghini Urus, top the list of his Dubai assets that he agreed to forfeit to the US government.
The full list of the assets is as follows:
*One (1) Rolls Royce Cullinan, vehicle number J9153
*One (1) Lamborghini Urus, vehicle number N4973
*One (1) Mercedes-Benz G-Class AMG G55, vehicle number G68816
*Four (4) Rolex watches
*One (1) Patek Philippe watch
* Three (3) Audemars Piguet watches
*Three (8) gold and diamond-studded rings
*Five (5) gold bracelets and two (2) gold bracelet keys
*Six (6) gold neck chains
* One (1) gold and diamond-studded necklace
*One (1) small gold nugget
* Two (2) bank cards
* A monetary sum of 6,740.00 Emirati dirhams (approximately $1,835.00)
*A monetary sum of 243.00 African rands (approximately. $15.45)
Apart from these assets, he also forfeited approximately 151.85713138 bitcoin (BTC).
The bitcoin, said to be part of proceeds traceable to his offence, "was transferred to the government on 14 April 2022."
Woodberry's fraudulent scheme
Woodberry's fraudulent activities that were known to the US government took place in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, and other places, between January and September 2019.
Within the period, US prosecutors said, Woodberry defrauded "victim companies and other businesses by means of materially false and fraudulent pretences, representations, and promises."
They said Woodberry and his co-schemers "were engaged in a business email compromise scheme targeting Victim Company B and other companies which resulted in a fraudulent wire of approximately $188,191.50 to a bank account."
Typical of how other companies were defrauded, the plea agreement submitted to the trial court revealed how Mr Ponle's co-schemers defrauded Victim Company B by first gaining unauthorised access to the firm's email account on or before 16 January 2019.
They hacked into the email account by fraudulently obtaining the account credentials, according to the prosecutors.
"Once access to this email account ("Victim Company B Email Account") had been accomplished, the co-schemers changed certain security settings in the email account to hide their activity from the actual email account user," prosecutors said in the plea agreement signed by Woodberry.
Swiftly, on 16 January 2019, an email was sent from the compromised Victim Company B's email account to another email account of the company requesting a $188,191.50 payment be made to Victim Company B's supplier.
The email, according to prosecutors, contained instructions that the money be sent via wire transfer to a bank account which was set up by Woodberry.
"PONLE knew that he had no right to the money and that the email was intended to defraud Victim Company B into paying money owed to the supplier to an account controlled by PONLE rather than the supplier.
"As a result of the email, approximately $188,191.50 was sent to 8208 account. PONLE acknowledges that the wire was processed through the Federal Reserve System and sent from an account held in New York, New York to an account ending in held in Nashville, Tennessee," the plea agreement added.
The document went further to state that on 17 January 2019, Mr Ponle received a message from Individual B informing him that "The money is in".
It added that Woodberry's instruction, Individual B converted approximately $119,000 of the proceeds of the fraudulent wire transfer to Bitcoin. "Individual B then sent the Bitcoin to PONLE's Bitcoin wallet."
How fraudulent bank account was set up
Woodberry, according to the plea agreement, set up the fraudulent bank account with which he received proceeds of the fraud nine days before he requested payment through Victim Company B's compromised email account on 16 January 2019.
The prosecutors say, specifically on 7 January 2019, Mr Ponle, using the alias "Mark Kain," sent a message from outside the US to "Individual B" asking Individual B to open a bank account in the name of a Victim Company B supplier.
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Woodberry was said to have told Individual B to "set up a separate business account just to receive the money."
Acting at Mr Ponle's direction, Individual B opened an account under the name "[Individual B] d/b/a [Victim Company B supplier]" and sent the account number, which ended in 8208, and routing number to him, the court filing stated.
On 10 January 2019, he sent a message to Individual B indicating that the wire to the Victim Company B supplier account would be "$188K".
Luxurious lifestyle
US prosecutors said Woodberry used the proceeds of his crimes to live a luxurious lifestyle, buying high-end cars, expensive watches and jewelry, and designer clothes.
As a college graduate, with a degree in business administration, he admitted having specialised computer skills.
"Rather than use his education to obtain a legitimate job and income, he engaged in a large-scale fraud and used the profits to live a high-end lifestyle far beyond what any average person will ever access," the US government said in its memorandum of sentence.
The cited an example of how he used the stolen victim money to buy expensive cars including a Rolls Royce, a Lamborghini, and a Mercedes Benz. He also bought several designer watches, including Rolexes, along with other jewelry and designer clothes."Moreover, defendant flaunted his ill-gotten wealth online to cultivate social media influencer status. For example, he posted a photo of himself in front of a Rolls Royce valued at approximately $325,000 with the caption 'Faith and prayer may be invisible, but they make all things possible ... Congratulations To Me".
Over 37,000 social media users liked this post, the US government's document stated.
Similarly, the US government last year described Woodberry's ally, Hushpuppi as "a prolific international fraudster who conspired to launder tens of millions of dollars through a series of online scams."
The government said Hushpupi "flaunted his luxurious, crime-funded lifestyle on social media."
His Instagram account, his flagship platform for flaunting his expensive lifestyle, has since been closed at the request of the US government.
Greedy graduate
US authorities said the convict's defendant's actions were driven by simple greed.
Judge Robert Gentleman of US District Court for Northern Illinois, handed down the verdict on Tuesday.
