A Nigerian man was sentenced Nov. 1 to more than 26 years in prison for conning prospective homeowners out of down payments using an email phishing and spoofing attack on title and real estate companies, according to U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.
Kolade Akinwale Ojelade, a 34-year-old Nigerian national living in Leicester, England, was indicted in February 2023, extradited to the U.S. in April 2024 and pleaded guilty to wire fraud affecting a financial institution and aggravated identity theft three months later. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to 292 months on the wire fraud count and 24 months on the identity theft count to run consecutively for a total of 316 months in federal prison. O’Connor also ordered him to pay $3.4 million in restitution.
According to court documents, Ojelade sent phishing emails to real estate businesses, gained unauthorized access to many of their accounts, and monitored their email traffic to determine when large transactions were about to take place. He then intercepted wire payment instructions, changed the information, and resent the emails via spoofed email addresses that mimicked the original senders’ addresses.
Unbeknownst to the victims – including prospective homeowners wiring money to real estate companies and real estate companies wiring money to title companies – the modified wiring instructions directed them to accounts controlled by Ojelade and his co-conspirators.
“Even the most conscientious among us could get taken in by a man-in-the-middle scam as devious as this one. Luckily, there are steps we can take to protect ourselves, including confirming wiring instructions in person or by phone,” U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton said in a release.
“Mr. Ojelade callously engaged in a scheme that stole millions of dollars from prospective homeowners and real estate companies. Today’s sentence reflects the seriousness of his crimes. Financial crimes can be devastating for individuals and companies because most times those monetary funds are never recovered,” said P.J. O’Brien, acting special agent in charge of the FBI Dallas division. “We will continue working with our law enforcement partners domestically and internationally to hold individuals accountable for defrauding unsuspecting victims.”
After serving his sentence, Ojelade will be subject to deportation.