The United States has indicted two Nigerian nationals, Shodiya Babatunde and Jamui Ahmed, for their alleged roles in a business email compromise scheme that defrauded healthcare companies of over $13 million.
According to a statement released Thursday by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, Babatunde and Ahmed orchestrated the fraudulent redirection of more than $13 million in payments intended for Fairview Health from healthcare companies based in Minnesota.
These funds were instead funneled into bank accounts controlled by the defendants and their co-conspirators.
US Attorney Andrew Luger revealed that Babatunde, 43, and Ahmed, 31, manipulated employees of several Minnesota-based healthcare firms, deceiving them into transferring the payments to the fraudulent accounts.
Luger further explained that court documents show the fraudulent activities took place between October 2020 and 2024.
‘Following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, both Babatunde and Ahmed are now considered fugitives.
“As part of the scheme, Babatunde and Ahmed created a fake ‘spoofed’ internet domain designed to appear as though it was controlled by Fairview Health,” the release stated.
They also set up fake email accounts designed to impersonate Fairview Health executives, including the CEO, the executive vice president and general counsel, and a business analyst.
“Babatunde and Ahmed used the fake emails to carry out a ‘phishing’ scheme to fraudulently obtain names, passwords, and access to payment accounts,” the statement said.
The defendants also used their fraudulent accounts to contact several other Minnesota-based health insurance companies, proposing new accounts for wiring payments intended for Fairview Health.
The statement further noted, “Unbeknownst to the vendor companies, these new accounts were actually under the control of Babatunde, Ahmed, and their co-conspirators—not Fairview Health.”
“In total, Babatunde and Ahmed fraudulently directed more than $13m in payments intended for Fairview Health from Minnesota-based healthcare companies to accounts controlled by Babatunde, Ahmed, and their co-conspirators”.
Babatunde and Ahmed are citizens and residents of Nigeria. They remain fugitives from justice.
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