Following the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, vowing to fish out Nigerians indicted in the recent United States wire scam, media reports indicates that has learnt that most of the young men with questionable source of living are currently on the run. While many have gone underground, those with the means have fled to some West African nations and even beyond the sub-region to evade arrest.
On August 22 , a 252-count federal grand jury indictment charged77 Nigerians for alleged involvement in a massive conspiracy to steal millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes and launder same through a Los Angeles-based money laundering network uncovered by the FBI.
The indictment alleges that the defendants and others used various online fraud schemes – including business email compromise (BEC) frauds, romance scams, and schemes targeting the elderly – to defraud victims out of millions of dollars.
While two defendants were already in federal custody on other charges, a few others were arrested last week, with the remaining suspects believed to be abroad, most of them located in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has however promised to assist FBI in extraditing those indicted.
Media sources gather that several big-time ‘Yahoo boys’ operating in Nigeria have since fled the country for fear that the FBI-backed EFCC investigation might affect them. They were said to have moved to neighbouring West African countries, especially Ghana and Gambia. Others are in South Africa while those who still have clean records have chosen to stay in Dubai till further notice.
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