Seven leaders of the Cape Town Zone of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, also known as "Black Axe," and an eighth man who conspired with a Black Axe leader, were charged with multiple federal crimes relating to internet scams they perpetrated from South Africa, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced today.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Honig, the following people, all originally from Nigeria, are charged by superseding indictment with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, spanning from 2011 to 2021. One defendant remains at large.
- Perry Osagiede, aka “Lord Sutan Abubakar de 1st,” aka “Rob Nicolella,” aka “Alan Salomon,” 52
- Enorense Izevbigie, aka “Richy Izevbigie,” aka “Lord Samuel S Nujoma,” 45
- Franklyn Edosa Osagiede, aka, “Lord Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela,” aka, “Edosa Franklyn Osagiede,” aka “Dave Hewitt,” aka, “Bruce Dupont,” 37
- Osariemen Eric Clement, aka, “Lord Adekunle Ajasi,” aka, “Aiden Wilson,” 35
- Collins Owhofasa Otughwor, aka, “Lord Jesse Makoko,” aka, “Philip Coughlan,” 37
- Musa Mudashiru, aka “Lord Oba Akenzua,” 33
Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Osagiede, Clement, and Izevbigie are also charged with wire fraud. Perry Osagiede, Franklyn Osagiede, and Otughwor are charged with aggravated identity theft.
Toritseju Gabriel Otubu, aka "Andy Richards," aka "Ann Petersen," 41, also originally from Nigeria, is charged by separate indictment with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering conspiracy, spanning from 2016 to 2021.
"Americans are too often victimized by criminal organizations located abroad who use the internet to deceive those victims, defraud them of money, and, many times, persuade the victims to wittingly or unwittingly assist in perpetuating the fraudulent schemes," Acting U.S. Attorney Honig said.
"The public should be on guard against schemes like these. And, more importantly, anyone thinking of engaging in this kind of criminal conduct should understand that the U.S. Attorney's Office and our partners will find them and bring them to justice, no matter where they are."
According to documents filed in these cases:
Perry Osagiede, Izevbigie, Franklyn Osagiede, Clement, Otughwor, and Mudashiru (the "Black Axe defendants") were all leaders of the Neo Black Movement of Africa, also known as "Black Axe," an organization headquartered in Benin City, Nigeria that operates in various countries.
The Black Axe is organized into regional chapters known as "zones." The defendants were all leaders within the Cape Town, South Africa Zone.
Perry Osagiede founded the Cape Town Zone of Black Axe and worked as its zonal head, along with Izevbigie.
The Black Axe defendants and other members of Black Axe took part in and openly discussed fraud schemes amongst their membership.
From at least 2011 through 2021, the Black Axe defendants and other conspirators worked together from Cape Town to engage in widespread internet fraud involving romance scams and advance-fee schemes.
Many of these fraudulent narratives involved claims that an individual was traveling to South Africa for work and needed money or other items of value following a series of unfortunate and unforeseen events, often involving a construction site or problems with a crane.
The conspirators used social media websites, online dating websites, and voiceover internet protocol phone numbers to find and talk with victims in the United States while using a number of aliases.
The conspirators' romance scam victims believed they were in romantic relationships with the person using the alias. When requested, the victims sent money and items of value overseas, including to South Africa.
Sometimes, when victims expressed hesitation in sending money, the conspirators used manipulative tactics to coerce the payments, including threatening to distribute personally sensitive photographs of the victim.
The conspirators used victims' bank accounts and individuals with U.S.-based financial accounts to transfer the money to South Africa.
On certain occasions, the conspirators convinced victims to open financial accounts in the United States that the conspirators would then be permitted to use themselves.
In addition to laundering money derived from romance scams and advance-fee schemes, the conspirators also worked to launder money from business email compromise schemes.
In addition to their aliases, the conspirators used business entities to conceal and disguise the illegal nature of the funds.
Otubu also engaged in romance scams and used the victims of those scams to obtain money and to launder the proceeds of business email compromises back to South Africa.
Otubu conspired with an individual identified in the criminal complaint as Co-conspirator 1, a founding member and leader of the Cape Town Zone of Black Axe.
Seven defendants were arrested in South Africa yesterday by the South African Police Service.
Those defendants had their initial appearances in South Africa and are awaiting extradition to the United States on these charges. Both cases are before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp in Trenton federal court.
Anyone who believes they may be a victim may visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/blackaxe for information about the case, including a questionnaire for victims to fill out and submit.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Priority Transnational Organized Crime (PTOC) investigation.
OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.