The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Wednesday that Franklin Ifeanyichukwu Okwonna and Ebuka Raphael Umeti, both Nigerian nationals, have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a large-scale wire fraud scheme.
Okwonna, 34, was sentenced on September 3 by a federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia to five years and three months in prison.
Additionally, he has been ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution, highlighting the severity of the crime.
He had pleaded guilty on May 20 to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for his involvement in a computer hacking and business email compromise (BEC) scheme that resulted in significant financial losses to multiple victims both in the U.S. and abroad.
His co-defendant, Ebuka Raphael Umeti, 35, was sentenced on August 27 to 10 years in prison and similarly ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution.
Umeti was convicted by a federal jury on June 13 on several charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to cause intentional damage to a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer.