2 more charged with real-estate fraud

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An accused member of a conspiracy among African nationals charged with using fake emails to rip off parties in real estate deals in several states was arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Pittsburgh and released pending trial.

Akintayo Bolorunduro, a native of Ghana living in Atlanta, was arrested in October in Georgia and appeared briefly Tuesday morning before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan to enter a not guilty plea and request a trial.

The judge said he can go home to Atlanta but must return here as the case proceeds.

Mr. Bolorunduro is one of four Ghanaian nationals charged in Pittsburgh in three plots to use fake emails to fool a settlement company and several lawyers into wiring hundreds of thousands of dollars to bank accounts controlled by the conspirators.

The crimes, called “business compromise email” schemes by the FBI, have mushroomed in recent years, spiking 480 percent from 2015 to 2016.

The local case came to light in July with the arrest of Nathanael Nyamekye, owner of an auto shop in Aliquippa, and Ismail Shitu of Brookline in the theft of $411,548 in proceeds from the sale of a Maryland couple’s home.

Since then, the U.S. Attorney’s office has identified two more accused conspirators, Mr. Bolorunduro and Adnan Ibrahim, who lives in Duquesne. Both are under indictment along with Mr. Shitu and Mr. Nyamekye.

Prosecutors have also added two more fraud incidents to the original indictment, describing the theft of $212,961 from the sale of a house in Massachusetts and $235,058 from the sale of land in Charlotte, N.C.

Trial in the case is scheduled to start Jan. 29 before U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab.