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Residential skyscraper buildings outside luxury villas on the waterfront of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Thursday, January 19, 2023.
Christopher Pike | bloomberg | Getty Images
A Nigerian national residing in the United Arab Emirates has been sentenced to 8 years in prison for masterminding a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme that victimized businesses across the United States, federal prosecutors said in Illinois.
Olaykan Jacob Ponle was transferred from the UAE to FBI custody in July 2020, where he remained until he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud earlier this year, the Department of Justice said in a press release on Tuesday.
Ponle worked with a network of scammers to masquerade as corporate entities using phishing emails. The scammers tricked employees into sending money on behalf of their “employers”, who were in fact scammers.
Ponle, better known as Woodberry, was a minor celebrity in his native Nigeria thanks to his lavish displays of wealth on social media.
Ponle relied on a network of “mules” to receive the money and convert it into the Bitcoin he earned. The Nigerian national used the proceeds from his scam to buy supercars, including a Rolls Royce Cullinan and a Lamborghini Urus.
Ponle will forfeit these items, collectively valued at more than $1 million, and will pay more than $8 million in compensation to the victim companies. Ponle had already lost 151 bitcoins, worth more than $4.5 million, as of Wednesday.
Ponelli was prosecuted despite the absence of an extradition treaty between the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Federal officials in the Department of Justice’s Bureau of International Affairs worked with their Emirati counterparts to secure Bonley’s extradition.
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