A 32-year-old Nigerian, Olusegun Adejorin, has been convicted in the United States for defrauding two charitable organizations of over $7.5 million and faces up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed.
According to a DOJ press release cited by DAILY GAZETTE on Saturday, Adejorin was extradited from Ghana and found guilty of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unauthorized access to a protected computer following a six-day trial in Maryland federal court.
The DOJ stated that between June and August 2020, Adejorin targeted a charity in Maryland and another in New York, using sophisticated tactics to divert funds.
He allegedly accessed employee email accounts, impersonated staff, and manipulated financial transactions to misappropriate money.
“A federal jury convicted Olusegun Samson Adejorin, 32, a Nigerian national, of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information,” the DOJ statement said.
The defendant reportedly registered spoofed domain names to impersonate employees of one charity while requesting withdrawals from the other.
He also intercepted and manipulated emails to falsely authorize the transfers, ultimately diverting more than $7.5 million to accounts not linked to the charities.
U.S Attorney Kelly O. Hayes, alongside FBI Baltimore Field Office Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul, praised the investigative work of the FBI and acknowledged Assistant U.S Attorneys Joshua Rosenthal and Darren S. Gardner, who prosecuted the case.
Adejorin faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the five counts of wire fraud, five years for unauthorized access to a protected computer, and a mandatory two years, to run consecutively, for aggravated identity theft. U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang has scheduled sentencing for Friday, April 10, 2026.
The DOJ noted that federal sentences often fall below the maximum penalties, as judges consider U.S Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The case forms part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide DOJ initiative targeting organized crime, immigration violations, and violent criminal activity.
