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$10m Fraud: US Sentence Nigerian Yahoo Boy To 15-Yrs In Jail

Wednesday, 08 May 2019 22:33 Written by

U.S. District Judge sentenced a Nigerian man identified as Hammed Akinola and his American accomplice, James Campbell, to many years in prison.

A Nigerian internet fraudster popularly known as Yahoo Boy, Hammed Akinola has bagged 180 months (15 years) imprisonment for a $10million fraud. His sentence was ordered by a Federal High Court in Houston, Texas, in the United States of America (USA) .

Akinola’s accomplice American accomplice was not spared also, U.S. District Judge David Hittner also sentenced 53-year-old American, James Campbell, to 90 months in prison for helping Akintola in his crime.

According to a press release by the US Justice Department, the judge handed the sentence on April 12, after both men pleaded guilty.

They were found to have taken or attempted to take large sums of money from roughly 45 victims, who thought they were sending their money to a title company to close on a home.

Unknown to them, the money was fraudulently being transferred to a bank in Houston controlled by the defendants.

Judge Hittner noted that the defendants “ruined many Americans’ lives”, while the banks took a large hit as well.

Both have been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted the investigation.

From on or about January 2016 through November 2017, Campbell and Akinola were involved in an international wire fraud conspiracy that consisted primarily of Business Email Compromise (BEC) fraud which targeted businesses and individuals that regularly perform wire transfer payments.

They compromised legitimate business e-mail accounts through social engineering or computer intrusion techniques to conduct unauthorized transfers of funds by international co-conspirators.

The international co-conspirators hacked into the victims accounts and sent what appeared to the victims to be legitimate emails from banks or title companies.

The victims, tricked into thinking such emails were from the bank or title companies, would then transfer the money to the accounts the defendants controlled, not knowing they were fraudulent emails.

Akinola was working with overseas conspirators who were orchestrating the BEC victimization.

Those conspirators needed domestic bank accounts where they could send the funds stolen from the BEC fraud.

Akinola and Campbell agreed to work together to open bank accounts and to recruit individuals in and around the Houston area to open bank accounts in order to receive the BEC wires.

Campbell and Akinola then recruited 20 other individuals who did open bank accounts to receive fraudulent funds.

The proceeds of the fraud scheme were disbursed between the account holders, Campbell, Akinola and international accomplices.

In total, the Campbell and Akinola’s activity participating in the scheme and laundering its proceeds resulted in victims’ of BEC fraud transferring or attempting to transfer $10.3 million into to accounts they controlled.

 

73-Yrs-Old Nigerian Nanny Who Force-Feed Baby To Death In US, Found Guilty, Jailed For 15-Yrs

Wednesday, 08 May 2019 22:23 Written by

A Nigerian nanny, Oluremi Adeleye has been found guilty of murdering an 8-month-old baby by force-feeding her half a pint of milk in less than 30 seconds and has been sentenced to 15 years in Prison

Oluremi Adeleye, 73, was trusted with the care of 8-month-old Enita Salubi in Maryland. But the nanny was captured on a nanny cam taking the teat off a bottle as she forced the child to guzzle down baby formula in October 2016.

Oluremi who was convicted in February, 2019, over the killing of the 8-month-old baby girl has been sentenced on Friday in Prince George’s County, U.S.

Adeleye was found guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree and second-degree child abuse.

 
 

She was sentenced to 40 years in prison with all but 15 years suspended in addition to five years supervised probation upon release.

The convict testified in her own defense at her trial. She said she was “cup-feeding” the baby to ensure it didn’t go hungry, a custom in Nigeria.

“I was feeding the baby and she refused to accept her food. So I decided to cup-feed her, not knowing it will lead to her death” she told the judge

Adeleye had others testify in her defense, saying that cup-feeding — pouring liquid in one’s hand to feed children when they do not want to eat but need to be fed — was common in Nigeria.

21 Injured As Boeing 737 Skids Into River On Landing In Florida

Saturday, 04 May 2019 11:57 Written by

 A passenger plane has slid off a runway in the US state of Florida, ending up in a river after landing during a thunderstorm. 

There were 136 passengers on the military charter plane which ditched into the St John’s river in Jacksonville. 
 

Boeing jetliner with 143 people aboard from the US outpost at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, slid off a runway into a shallow river in Jacksonville, Florida, on Friday while attempting to land at a military base there during a thunderstorm, injuring 21 people.

According to NDTV, there were no reports of fatalities or critical injuries, with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office saying on Twitter that all 21 of the injured were taken to a hospital where they were listed in good condition.

The plane, a chartered Boeing 737-800 arrived from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba with 136 passengers and seven crew members, but it crashed into the St Johns river at the end of the runway at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at about 9:40 pm local time, a spokesman for the Florida air base said.

"The plane was not submerged. Every person is alive and accounted for," the sheriff's office said on Twitter.

The sheriff's tweet was accompanied by two photographs showing the plane, bearing the logo of Miami Air International, resting in shallow water and fully intact.

The head of Boeing used his first shareholder meeting after the fleet of 737 MAX was grounded to try to assure shareholders, airline passengers, and the media that the plane is safe.

"No fatalities reported. We are all in this together," Curry said in a separate tweet.

A passenger on board the plane, attorney Cheryl Bormann, told CNN in an interview that the flight, which had been four hours late in departing, made a "really hard landing" in Jacksonville amid thunder and lightning.

"We came down, the plane literally hit the ground and bounced. It was clear the pilot did not have total control of the plane. It bounced again," she said, adding that the experience was "terrifying."

Bormann said she hit her head on a plastic tray on the seat in front of her as the plane veered sideways and off the runway. "We were in the water, we couldn't tell where we were, whether it was a river or an ocean."

The military base is situated on the western bank of the St Johns River about 8 miles south of central Jacksonville, in the northeastern corner of Florida about 350 miles north of Miami.

Bormann described emerging from the plane onto the wing as oxygen masks deployed and smelling the jet fuel that she said was apparently leaking into the water.

Bormann, from Chicago, said that most of the passengers were connected to the military and helped each other out of their seats and onto a wing, where they were assisted after some time into a raft.

Miami Air International is a charter airline operating a fleet of the Boeing 737-800, different from the 737 MAX 8 aircraft that has been grounded following two fatal crashes involving that plane.

A Boeing spokesman said that the company was aware of the incident and was gathering information.

Teenage Boy Beheads Classmate For Sitting With His Girlfriend (Photo)

Friday, 03 May 2019 01:32 Written by


A jealous teenager has taken the life of his classmate by beheading him for sitting with his girlfriend. 

 
 
 
 
A Massachusetts teenager Mathew Borges is currently facing murder trial after he stabbed his classmate Lee Manuel Viloria-Paulino, and later beheaded him for sitting with his girlfriend in the cafeteria of Lawrence High School in U.S.
 
The prosecutor, Jay Gubitose, said that argument later ensued between Borges and Viloria-Paulino following the development which happened in 2016.
 
“The defendant was tough on the outside but insecure on the inside.
 
“He was jealous and started screaming at her,” Gubitose said, according to the Boston Herald.
 
Gubitose told the jury that Borges, who was 15 years old at the time, sent his girlfriend a text that said: “I think of killing someone and I smirk … It’s all I think about every day”.
 
In November that year, a day before Borges allegedly killed Viloria-Paulino, he texted the girl with whom he had broken up by then because of his jealousies saying: “The next time you see me, look at my eyes because that’s the last time they’ll be like that. They’ll be dead.”
 
Surveillance video at the home of a neighbor of Viloria-Paulino showed the victim and Borges leaving together and walking toward a river, the prosecutor told the jury.
 
Borges, who is being tried as an adult, told police that he and the victim walked toward the river to smoke marijuana and that he left.
 
The video showed four people later walking near the victim’s house, and then returning with duffle bags, the prosecutor said, adding that Viloria-Paulino’s home had been burglarized.
 
Borges’ attorney, Edward Hayden, said that his client and his friends burglarized Viloria-Paulino’s home, but that Borges did not commit murder.
 
“Witnesses who are going to say he committed murder are not reliable,” he said, the Boston Herald reported.
 
Hayden also said that the case against Borges lacked evidence such as DNA, weapons or blood implicating his client.
 
And while Borges’ texts “supposedly indicate jealousy,” he argued, they did not mention Viloria-Paulino.
 
“In these thousands of texts and messages there is no evidence that Mathew killed Lee. Anything incriminating is referring to the house break.
 
“There is nothing in all these messages and there’s no motive,” he said.
 
Police searching Borges’ home found a journal in which he wrote “kill him,” and he spoke of calling his friends, and telling them to cover their shoes with bags.
 
“The defendant told them he stabbed him to death and cut his head and hands off so he couldn’t be identified,”Gubitose said.
 
A man who was walking his dog on December 1 found Viloria-Paulino’s decapitated body by the river.
 
Police later found his head in a bag close to where the body was located.

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Former General Manager Of NAPIMS, Dafe Sejebor, Arrested In US For 'Human Trafficking'

Wednesday, 01 May 2019 02:41 Written by
A former group general manager of National Petroleum Investment Management Services has been nabbed for alleged human trafficking in the US. 
 
Dafe Sejebor
 
Houston Police Department has arrested Dafe Sejebor, former group general manager of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), over his alleged involvement in human trafficking, TheCable reports.
 
Sejebor was arrested along 46 others in an investigation that lasted 10 days with focus on Fort Bend County and the Katy areas of Texas.
 
Sejebor was retired from NAPIMS, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), in August 2015.
 
According to Click2Houston, the 47 suspects arrested include 27 woman and 20 men.
 
It added that eight were confirmed as victims, including 2 juveniles, another eight charged with sex and human trafficking-related offenses.
 
Some of those charged with sex and human trafficking also face other charges related to unlawful possession of weapons, and narcotics charges and possession of controlled substances, tampering with evidence and prostitution.
 
“We are here to help, first and foremost. We understand the problem of human trafficking. We understand what it does to the victim, how to fix the victim,” said John Wall, an officer with the Houston police department vice-division.
 
“We understand they are scared to come forward, but we are going to do everything in our power to keep them safe, give them the services they need to move forward in life.
 
“If you think about it, children (and) young adults spend and an enormous amount of time on social media, and they are vulnerable. They don’t understand the risk involved in talking to individuals they don’t know on that type of forum.
 
“And, at the end of the day, we hope we can put the trafficker where he belongs, and that’s in prison.”
 

U.S. border militia that’s detaining migrants ‘trained to kill Obama, Clinton’ – FBI

Saturday, 27 April 2019 12:43 Written by
The leader of an armed group that has been detaining asylum-seeking families from Central America near the Mexican border allegedly claimed recently that his group was training to assassinate former President Barack Obama.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, and his group, United Constitutional Patriots, also planned to murder Hillary Clinton and billionaire George Soros, according to a tip received by the FBI.

 

Hopkins, who is also known as Johnny Horton Jr., appeared in court in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday, charged with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition arising from the 2017 search.

He was arrested on Saturday on the back of condemnations of videos that were released online showing his members carrying firearms and detaining groups of immigrants crossing the border.

The FBI, according to TIME, has declined to comment on why it waited to bring charges against Hopkins following the 2017 search. His attorney, Kelly O’Connell, said his client, who is being held without bond, will plead not guilty at a hearing next week in Albuquerque.

When FBI agents searched his home in 2017, he allegedly told them that the weapons they found belonged to his girlfriend, but then said one was his.

He further told members of his group in 2017 that they “were training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, because of these individuals support of Antifa,” or anti-fascists, according to the complaint.

The group is mostly seen in videos, armed with rifles and wearing camouflage uniforms while instructing migrant families to sit and wait until Border Patrol agents arrive, according to Aljazeera.

The group has also been accused of detaining women and children at gunpoint, a claim it denies.

“It’s a false narrative that we’re a bunch of armed lunatics and we’re holding kids at gunpoint,” a Patriots spokesman, Jim Benvie said, adding that the group may move its base from the Sunland Park to another location due to the latest developments.

Meanwhile, Hopkins is barred from possessing weapons because of three felony convictions. In 1996, he was first convicted of illegal weapons possession in Michigan, said the FBI. He was convicted over the same reasons in Klamath County, Oregon, in 2006, alongside a charge of impersonating a peace officer.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said last week that she was working with state and local police to address the armed groups, while the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico has written to her and state Attorney General Hector Balderas to investigate the incidents.

Single mom claims Christian school in Ohio expelled her kids for having different fathers

Friday, 26 April 2019 00:18 Written by
A single mother of two from Akron, Ohio, is calling out a Christian school in what she claims authorities expelled her two daughters because they have different fathers and because she’s unmarried.

In a lengthy post on Facebook, 30-year-old Summer Grant explained why her children shouldn’t suffer as result of her past and why it was so wrong for the Chapel Hill Christian School to take such an action.

“This situation has really put me in a bind mentally!!! I can say I’ve done some “not so ok things” in my life,” she wrote. “Done some things I probably shouldn’t have but I don’t want to be judged as a bad person! N I especially don’t want my kids to be judged for my actions. Regardless of my personal life I’m a really good mother!”.

Speaking with the Akron Beacon Journal, Grant called out the school in what she claims was a wrongful dismissal of her daughters, 10-year old Summara-Rayn and 7-year-old Summaia.

“Just because I’m not married and my children do have different fathers doesn’t mean that I don’t want my children to have a good education and I don’t want them to know who Christ is in their education,” she said.

According to Grant, she initially thought the school administrator, John Wilson, was looking out for her when he constantly asked her when she would be marrying Summaia’s father, whom she was involved with at the time she was in the first grade.

“Honestly, I thought it was just coming from a place of being a pastor and just being concerned and wanting the best for us, at first,” she said. “It just started to be uncomfortable because it was just all the time.”

She also added that she suspected the school had issues with her marital status when she met Wilson last July to discuss a scholarship for his daughters for the next school year. According to Grant, the discussion abruptly turned into a judgmental one.

“It wasn’t about whether they had their scholarship in place,” she said. “It was more or less about me just not living right … It was an uncomfortable conversation, but I sat through it because I really wanted my children to go to the school.”

Grant further told the Akron Beacon Journal things took a turn for the worst last Wednesday when Summara had an incident with the school bus driver. She said she also got involved in the case the next morning to try and address the situation. The police eventually had to be called in to calm the situation – but her daughters were dismissed the next afternoon.

In a phone conversation with Wilson, Grant said she asked him if the girls’ dismissal was as a result of the bus incident to which he replied saying it wasn’t solely the reason.

“He said no. He said the bus incident just shed a light on many problems that we have with you,” Grant said.

According to Grant, Wilson also added that she was an adulterer who was disobeying the Ten Commandments.

“I understand I’m not married and fornication would be what I committed, not adultery!” she wrote in her Facebook post. “However I’ve been the same unmarried women with children who have different fathers since the day he first accepted me n my children and the money for them to attend and that’s where he’s wrong at.”

In a statement sent to the Akron Beacon Journal from the school about Grant’s accusations, they said parents sign a written agreement “to conduct themselves in accordance with expressed guidelines of conduct.” Grant, however, said she doesn’t remember signing that agreement.

“While we believe it would be wrong to make to the public the particular circumstances that led to this separation, out of concern for the privacy of the family, we also felt that dismissal was necessary in order to protect the safety of our school children and their families,” a portion of the statement also read.

Grant said she’s exploring the possibility of homeschooling the girls for the rest of the academic year though she fears they could lose their chances of securing private school scholarships.

Trump backs Gaddafi-era General who is bombing Libya’s UN-backed government

Friday, 26 April 2019 00:09 Written by

There is heightened tension in Libya between two parallel governments who are also creating diplomatic tension among global super powers over who to support in the North African country’s clashes of power.

Khalifa Haftar, the leader of the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces ruling eastern Libya from Benghazi has divided support for the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli and led by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj who was appointed in 2015 after a political agreement.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (C) posing with head of the UN-backed unity government in Tripoli, Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj (L) and Libya Chief of Military Khalifa Haftar

Haftar’s forces which does not recognized the unity government, has launched an attack on Tripoli after taking over the oil-rich south of Libya earlier this year before advancing through largely unpopulated desert regions toward the capital.

The LNA bombed an airport in Tripoli and the World Health Organization (WHO) has counted 254 deaths with more than 1,200 people injured since Haftar’s offensive began in early April.

While the United Nations, European Union, Italy and the UK have called on Haftar to halt the fighting and withdraw from Tripoli, U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly backed the former general in Muammar Gaddafi’s army against US’s public position.

Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar

Diplomatic sources told Bloomberg that Trump indicated in a phone call with Haftar last week that the U.S. supported an assault on the country’s capital to depose the UN-backed government. This was preceded by an earlier phone call by White House National Security Adviser John Bolton who gave Haftar the impression of a U.S. green light for an offensive on Tripoli.

Two people familiar with the matter claim the positions of Trump and Bolton were taken after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with the U.S. president on April 9 and urged him to back Haftar.

He also spoke with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Haftar supporter, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a day before the White House statement on the call with Haftar saying they discussed “ongoing counterterrorism efforts” and “recognized Field Marshal Haftar’s significant role in fighting terrorism and securing Libya’s oil resources.”

Earlier, the White House Secretary of State Michael Pompeo had said: “We have made clear that we oppose the military offensive by Khalifa Haftar’s forces and urge the immediate halt to these military operations against the Libyan capital.”

This stance was supported by the U.S. charge d’affairs in Libya, Peter Bodde, who has warned Haftar against advancing on Tripoli. In February, he reportedly told Haftar during a meeting in Abu Dhabi that the capital was a red line.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Bloomberg News in an interview that he’s not aware of the details of Trump’s phone calls but choosing sides or encouraging the military force to govern was a bad idea.

“You’ve got to get all the parties at the table. What would be a big mistake is to back one group over the other. Haftar cannot conquer and hold Tripoli,” said Graham.

“It would be Syria all over again if he tried to conquer Tripoli by military force,” he added.

Haftar is also enjoying the support of Russia, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates as he claims his offensive is intended to combat Islamist terrorism in Libya.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Friday dismissed the military solution in Libya as championed by Haftar. “What we’ve said before and what I do support is Field Marshal Haftar’s support in terms of his role in counterterrorism, but where we need Field Marshal Haftar’s support is in building democratic stability there in the region,” he said.

However, France did not join the call by the EU for Haftar to agree to a ceasefire and return to the peace talks. Like the US, France did not back the failed UN Security Council emergency meeting to address the situation in Libya which was vetoed by Russia and the U.S.

French president Emmanuel Macron facilitating talks between the two leaders.

In 2017, French president Emmanuel Macron invited Haftar and Sarraj to Paris for talks in an attempt to broker a power-sharing deal. The two agreed to elections to help resolve the conflict but it has never happened.

The situation in Libya immediately followed the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 after an international military intervention led by France, the United States and Britain.

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