$1m Fraud- FBI Arrests Nigeria’s Tech Enthusiast Sapphire Egemasi

A Nigerian tech enthusiast, Sapphire Egemasi, is now a guest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over a multi-million dollar fraud.

Egemasi was arrested in April, in Bronx, New York, with others including one Samuel Kwadwo Osei, allegedly the leader of the syndicate that executed the operation,.

This is in connection with a large-scale fraud with several US government agencies as targets.

Egemasi operates a Devpost account, and her and her gang members’ arrest followed a federal grand jury indictment filed in 2024, in which they were charged with multiple counts of internet fraud and money laundering.

The offences were reportedly committed between September 2021 and February 2023, during which they allegedly conspired to defraud the city of Kentucky of millions of dollars.

The Nigerian tech enthusiast was a member of the syndicate which executed their plans partly by designing spoof websites impersonating official US government domains to steal login credentials and facilitating the transfer of stolen funds.

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They allegedly rerouted $965,000 stolen from Kentucky into a PNC Bank account in August 2022, while in another separate transaction around the same time, $330,000 was funneled into a Bank of America account, text message evidences show.

Egemasi and her co-accused are currently in federal custody and are being held pending trial in Lexington, Kentucky.

If convicted, she will face up to 20 years in prison, significant financial penalties, and eventual deportation to their home countries upon completion of their sentences.