Securities Industry Commentator by Bill Singer Esq

[T[he scheme involved fraudulent offers of investment funding by perpetrators primarily living in Nigeria who impersonated U.S. bank officials and financial consultants over the Internet and over the phone. Victims in various countries were deceived into believing they would receive millions of dollars of investment funding as part of joint ventures with U.S. banks, usually BB&T or Chase.  The perpetrators utilized false domain names to make it appear that senders of emails were actually affiliated with BB&T or Chase.  To convince victims that the opportunities were authentic, the perpetrators recruited U.S. citizens to pose as bank "representatives" at in-person meetings with victims around the world, and, if occurring abroad, utilized sham visits to the local U.S. embassy or consulate and fabricated U.S. government documents to make the victims believe the U.S. government was sponsoring the investment agreements.  The victims were then allegedly induced to pay tens of thousands, and often hundreds of thousands, of dollars to U.S.-based bank accounts on the belief that such payments were necessary to effectuate their investment agreements. 

According to the charging documents, to ensure the proceeds made it back to Nigeria, after victims wired in funds, money movers who controlled the U.S. bank accounts liquidated the proceeds through outgoing wire transfers to exporters, cash withdrawals and purchases of vehicles, including luxury brands such as Land Rover and Mercedes Benz, which were then shipped to Nigeria.  According to the charging documents, Okigbo and Okafor were primarily money movers in the scheme, while Underwood, Rutledge, Martin and Sourjohn were representatives.

The scheme allegedly resulted in losses of more than $7 million from victims in more than 20 countries.  To date, a house in Richmond, a 2014 Land Rover Range Rover, and approximately $200,000 in cash, all directly traceable to victims' payments, have been seized.

[B]etween September 2016 and November 16, 2016, Fagin engaged in a scheme to defraud financial institutions while using the personal identifying information of other individuals. Fagin would use the proceeds of the fraud scheme to purchase methamphetamine for his use and to distribute to others for money.

More specifically, on November 16, 2016, Defendants Angelica Marie Hatch-Pequin ("Hatch") and Jason Maurice Fagin were arrested at the Royal River Casino in Flandreau, South Dakota, for attempting to negotiate counterfeit checks. While trying to negotiate the check, Hatch presented a driver's license belonging to another individual. Hatch, aided and abetted by Fagin, used the identification of that individual without lawful authority.

Hatch and Fagin would steal mail from mailboxes located in affluent neighbors of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hatch and Fagin would target mail that appeared to contain bills and checks. Fagin would then use the personal, business, and banking information contained in those mail matters to create fraudulent checks. After Fagin created the fraudulent checks, Hatch would usually cash the counterfeit checks at convenience stores and casinos located throughout the Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota region. Hatch and Fagin created and passed fraudulent checks for approximately two months leading up to their arrests in November.

Two types of checks were created: payroll and personal checks. Payroll checks would be drafted in amounts ranging from $450 to $2,000; the check presented to the Royal River Casino was for $1,500. Personal checks were made in amounts from $100 to $800. The effected banks were insured by the FDIC at the time of the offenses. The stipulated loss amount relating to Fagin's and Hatch-Pequin's criminal conduct was between $40,000 and $95,000.

• Securities Industry Commentator
• Bill Singer