Nigerian Yahoo Boy On FBI’s most wanted list, Tobechi Onwuhara Apprehended In Australia
Finally Tobechi Onwuhara has been apprehended. Took them Five years
though, but you can never hide for long i guess. He’s sure spending the
rest of his life behind bars.
He owned a hip hop record label and he lived the high life of luxury
hotels, gambling, strippers and bling. But behind the glitz and the
glamour Tobechi Enyinna Onwuhara was one of the FBI’s most wanted men,
allegedly a fraudster who scammed at least $44 million through cyber
crimes.
But the advanced con artist, who fled Florida in August 2008 amid an
intense FBI investigation, has been caught in Sydney and sent back to
the US to face a string of fraud charges.
Nigerian-born Tobechi Onwuhara, 33, was “provisionally arrested in
response to a request from the United States Government” in December
last year, according to a spokeswoman for the Australian
Attorney-General’s department.
Mr Onwuhara is to face prosecution in the US for fraud related
offences, including identity fraud and computer fraud, the spokeswoman
said.
“On January 29, the Minister for Justice [Jason Clare] made a determination to surrender Mr Onwuhara to the US.
“As a matter of long standing practice, the Australian government does not comment on working matters,” she said.
Fairfax Media understands Mr Onwuhara had lived it up in Sydney after disappearing in August 2008.
The FBI’s website now lists Mr Onwuhara as captured, but with scant
detail of the arrest. They were offering a $25,000 reward for
information leading to his arrest.
The source who tipped off Fairfax said Mr Onwuhara had made regular
trips to The Star casino as well as splashing cash at many popular
nightclubs.
“He would bet at the Star under a different name, he was a regular,
then one day he just disappeared and someone told us he wanted by the
FBI,” a source said.
A spokeswoman for Echo entertainment, owner of The Star, did not
return calls and emails. The US Consulate in Sydney also did not return
calls.
An Australian Federal Police spokesperson confirmed the AFP arrested Mr Onwuhara.
According to the FBI’s most wanted list Mr Onwuhara is wanted for his
alleged involvement in an elaborate scheme that defrauded the financial
industry out of tens of millions of dollars.
“Onwuhara is a key member of a group of Nigerians who allegedly have
conducted fraudulent banking activities from Florida and Texas, since
2005,” the FBI’s most wanted website states.
“It is alleged that the group has used online internet databases to steal victims’ identities.
“Once acquired, they allegedly use the victims’ information to gain
access to the victims’ ‘Home Equity Line of Credit’ accounts and wire
transfer the money to accounts mainly located overseas, some in the
United States.”
Some of Onwuhara’s alleged co-conspirators have been arrested, inside
and outside of the United States, the FBI’s website states.
Onwuhara was charged federally with conspiracy to commit bank fraud,
and a federal call for was issued for his arrest by the US District
Court, Eastern District of Virginia, on August 1, 2008.
