Gang stole £1m from victims across world
A GANG of fraudsters who posed as bankers, financial gurus and potential love interests have been jailed after swindling people out of £1m.
Peters Akanno Obi, Soloman Adanegbe and Prince BraimahOboh preyed on victims across the world, conning them out of cash, which was laundered and stored in accounts in Greater Manchester.
The trio were jailed at Manchester Crown Court after being found guilty by a jury following a fourweek trial.
The court heard that between May 2013 and July 2014, the gang posed as bank employees, potential love interests and financial advisers, attempting to con hundreds of thousands of people across Europe, the US and Asia into depositing money into bogus accounts. The cash was laundered, stashed in accounts in our region, before being funnelled offshore.
Detectives from GMP’s Fraud Investigation Team arrested the men in July 2014. They seized blueprints for a house in Nigeria, fake cheques and high value receipts for international bank transfers.
When officers arrested AkannoObi, his laptop was switched on and he was logged on to a spoof banking website. He had been sending emails to people in Hong Kong, using multiple identities, trying to romance them into wiring him money.
Analysis of computers unearthed personal data of victims, template letters to convince victims they were looking for love and documents claiming recipients had pocketed large sums following the death of a long lost family member.
Peters Akanno Obi, 42, of Stillwater Drive, Clayton, was jailed for seven years for conspiracy to commit fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and possession of articles for use in fraud. Soloman Adanegbe, 38, of Rowan Court, Salford, and Prince Braimah-Oboh, 49, of Powell Street, Clayton, were both jailed for seven years for conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Det Sgt Phil Larratt, of GMP’s Fraud Investigation Team, said: “This was a sophisticated crime group that utilised specialist software to contact hundreds of thousands of victims at once.
“This series of high value international frauds was perpetrated by the offenders from the comfort of their own homes in Manchester.
“Luckily the majority of people don’t fall for these types of scams, but due to the volume of attempts, even a success rate of one per cent can be extremely lucrative for these criminals.”