Two of scammers of Nigeria have used the major crypto exchange Gemini to convert their millions into the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. The law enforcement agency Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a criminal complaint according to which two Nigerian scammers succeeded in converting their millions of dollars into Bitcoin (BTC) using the Gemini exchange during their deport to the United States (U.S.) from Dubai. Their Instagram accounts were filled with their pictures of showy wealth.
Scammers engaged a scheme known as BEC
These two scammers are Ramon Olorunwa Abbas who used the names of “Ray Hushpuppi” and “Hush” and Olalekan Jacob Ponle who is also known with some other names as “Mr. Woodbery” and “Mark Kain” as well. According to the FBI criminal complaint, these scammers engaged a scheme called business email compromise (BEC) where criminals manipulate the employees of the company to move the funds of the company to their accounts after accessing a business email account.
As per the FBI, the Nigerian scammers converted a huge amount of $6.5 million into 1,500 BTC while defrauding multiple American companies during this process. The FBI complaint states:
Preliminary blockchain analysis indicates that PONLE received at least 1,494.71506296 bitcoin related to these BEC schemes, valued at approximately $6,599,499.98 at the time he received the proceeds.
One of the scammers named Ponle used the address “16AtGJbaxL2kmzx4mW5ocpT2ysTWxmacWn” which is being used by him since the year 2014. That is why he did not show any concern to cover his tracks. Below is given the picture which shows the transaction history for this BTC address.
Source: Crystal Blockchain
Why scammers used the Gemini Exchange?
Scammers might have chosen any other major crypto exchange out there for this illicit activity but they particularly picked the Gemini exchange. The reason behind choosing this exchange might be the one that they wanted to use a United States-based crypto exchange.
Apart from this, scammers reportedly used this crypto exchange last year as well to convert their money into BTC. An amount of $2,149,000 was transferred into the Gemini exchange on Feb 15, 2019, by Ponle and his associate.
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