James Junior Aliyu, a 30-year-old Nigerian national residing in South Africa at the time of his criminal conduct, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
Aliyu, who was arrested and extradited from South Africa to the United States, is the last of three defendants to plead guilty to his role in a business email compromise (BEC) scheme.
Eight other defendants previously pled guilty in the District of Maryland in separate cases related to the same conspiracy.
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Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the guilty plea with Acting Special Agent in Charge Evan Campanella, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Baltimore on August 26, 2025.
On June 24, 2019, a federal grand jury returned an indictment, charging Aliyu, Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo, 30, and Henry Onyedikachi Echefu, 31, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
All three are Nigerian citizens who resided in South Africa at the time of the crimes. Federal authorities unsealed the indictment on July 6, 2022, upon the defendants’ arrests outside of the U.S. All three were extradited to the United States from outside the country to face their federal charges.
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According to his plea agreement, from February 2017 until at least July 2017, Aliyu conspired with others to perpetrate a BEC scheme. Specifically, Aliyu and his co-conspirators, including co-conspirators residing in Maryland, gained unauthorized access to email accounts associated with individuals and businesses that they targeted.
The co-conspirators sent false wiring instructions to the victims’ email accounts from “spoofed” emails — accounts associated with forged sender addresses — to deceive the victims into sending money to bank accounts controlled by the scheme’s perpetrators, which are called “drop accounts.”
Additionally, during the same timeframe, Aliyu and his co-conspirators plotted to commit money laundering. They conspired to disburse the fraudulently obtained funds into the drop accounts and to other accounts by initiating account transfers, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier’s checks, and writing checks to other individuals and entities to hide the true ownership and source of the assets.
As detailed in the plea agreement, the intended loss for transactions Aliyu was directly involved in was at least $4,162,211.65. The actual loss resulting from these transactions was at least $1,570,475. Aliyu directly controlled at least $1,194,565 of the funds they obtained from victims.
According to the plea agreement, Aliyu is required to pay a money judgment of at least $1,194,565, and restitution in the full amount of the victims’ losses, which the parties agree is at least $2,389,130.
Aliyu is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman scheduled sentencing for Monday, November 24, at 10 a.m.
U.S. Attorney Hayes commended HSI’s Mid-Atlantic El Dorado Task Force for its work in the investigation. Ms. Hayes also thanked the South African Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa, and South African Police Service.
Additionally, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) provided significant assistance in securing Aliyu’s extradition from South Africa.
OIA and the Department of Justice Canada’s International Assistance Group also provided substantial aid in securing the arrest and extradition of both Echefu and Simon-Ebo. Ms. Hayes also recognized Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan S. McKoy who is prosecuting the federal case.
