Loading story…
The United States extradited Nigerian nationals Adebola Festus Adekunle and Mudasiru Afeez Olawale to face separate federal prosecutions over alleged financially motivated sextortion schemes targeting U.S. minors. Prosecutors allege the schemes contributed to the deaths of teenagers in Mississippi and North Carolina; the defendants face charges including sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, coercion, extortion, and child sexual abuse material offenses.
The arrests and extraditions were conducted through Operation Artemis, an FBI-led initiative targeting Nigeria-based sextortion networks, with assistance from Nigerian authorities. Adekunle and Olawale entered U.S. custody and made initial court appearances in Mississippi and North Carolina; some counts carry potential life sentences, while Adekunle's charge of sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death has a mandatory minimum 30-year sentence.
See the reporting duties and controls this puts on the clock.
4 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
Adekunle and Olawale were extradited from Nigeria and transferred into U.S. custody to face separate federal sextortion prosecutions. Adekunle appeared in federal court in Oxford, Mississippi, and Olawale appeared in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Nigerian authorities arrested Adebola Festus Adekunle during Operation Artemis, the international law-enforcement effort targeting Nigerian sextortion rings that preyed on U.S. minors.
Nigerian authorities arrested Mudasiru Afeez Olawale as part of the FBI-led Operation Artemis effort against Nigeria-based sextortion actors targeting U.S. minors.
Mudasiru Afeez Olawale was indicted on charges including sexual exploitation of minors resulting in death, enticement of minors, interstate threatening communications, and distribution of child pornography.
See what this changes for your reporting obligations and which controls it puts on the clock.
2 references tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
bleepingcomputer.com
Open sourcejustice.gov
Open sourceMap indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.
Other stories Mallory is tracking that overlap on entities, sources, or topic labels.
U.S. courts sentenced two Nigerian nationals for separate fraud operations that targeted victims through **business email compromise**, romance scams, and wire fraud. James Junior Aliyu received **90 months** in prison for his role in an international scheme that compromised business and personal email accounts, sent spoofed messages to reroute legitimate wire transfers, and stole about **$6 million** from victims since at least 2017. Prosecutors said Aliyu was arrested in Johannesburg in 2022, extradited to the United States, ordered to forfeit **$1.2 million** and pay **$2.4 million** in restitution, and is expected to be removed from the country after serving his sentence; co-conspirators Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu also pleaded guilty. In a separate case, Saheed Sunday Owolabi was sentenced to **15 years** in federal prison after prosecutors showed he used fake online identities to run romance scams, steal money and personal information, and launder proceeds through victim bank accounts. Authorities said the operation moved more than **$1.5 million** to Nigeria and included a real-estate wire fraud in which forged emails redirected home-sale funds to accounts controlled by the conspirators. Trial evidence included chat logs showing Owolabi unknowingly attempted to scam another fraudster, helping establish his central role in a scheme that U.S. officials said caused substantial financial hardship to victims across the country.
Jun 29, 2026
Five alleged leaders of Black Axe’s Cape Town, South Africa, branch have been extradited to the United States to face federal charges in Trenton, New Jersey. A 2021 indictment charges Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, Osariemen Eric Clement, Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, and Musa Mudashiru with wire fraud, money laundering, and identity-theft-related offenses arising from alleged activity between 2011 and their 2021 arrests. Prosecutors allege the defendants used false identities on social-media and dating platforms to conduct romance and advance-fee scams against more than 100 victims, inventing travel, construction, inheritance, and medical emergencies to obtain money. The operation allegedly also used sextortion threats involving sensitive photographs and laundered proceeds through South African companies, victim-controlled bank accounts, and funds tied to business-email-compromise schemes. The extraditions are part of multinational enforcement against Black Axe, which the FBI describes as a violent transnational criminal organization headquartered in Benin City, Nigeria, with operations spanning dozens of countries.
Sep 14, 2026
U.S. federal court in Boston sentenced **Matthew Abiodun Akande**, a 37-year-old Nigerian national living in Mexico, to **eight years in prison** for a multi-year scheme that compromised Massachusetts tax preparation firms and used stolen taxpayer data to file fraudulent U.S. tax returns. Prosecutors said Akande and co-conspirators used **phishing emails** posing as prospective clients to trick employees into installing **remote access trojan (RAT) malware**, including **Warzone RAT**, enabling theft of clients’ personally identifiable information (PII) and subsequent tax-refund fraud. Court records and DOJ statements said the group filed **1,000+ fraudulent returns** seeking **over $8.1 million** in refunds and obtained **more than $1.3 million**; Akande was also ordered to pay **$1,393,230 in restitution**. Akande was arrested at **Heathrow Airport** in October 2024, extradited to the U.S. in March 2025, and later pleaded guilty to **33 counts** including conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access to protected computers, wire fraud, theft of government money, and aggravated identity theft; proceeds were routed to U.S. bank accounts and partially transferred onward, including to recipients in Mexico.
Jun 29, 2026