PG County Man Gets 87 Months For $4.2 Million Email Scheme: DOJ

GREENBELT, MD -- A Beltsville man has been sentenced to 87 months in prison for a "business e-mail compromise scheme" that netted him and his co-conspirators more than $4.2 million, the Department of Justice says.

A judge sentenced 31-year-old Nkeng Amin to 87 months in prison on Monday followed by three years of supervised released "for a large-scale business e-mail compromise scheme during which Amin and his co-conspirators obtained over $4.2 million from at least 13 individual and business victims," the DOJ said in a statement.

The judge ordered Amin to pay restitution of $1,021,474.

"[B]etween February 2016 and July 2017, Amin and his co-conspirators gained access to e-mail accounts associated with the victims," the statement reads. "Then, posing as an entity with whom the victims were associated, they sent false wiring instructions to the victims, who wired millions of dollars into 'drop accounts' set up by Amin and his co-defendants, in the names of fictitious businesses they registered. Drop accounts were bank accounts opened or controlled by Amin and his co-conspirators that were used to receive fraudulently obtained money from victims."

Amin and others involved disbursed the money by electronically transferring the money to other accounts, withdrawing cash, obtaining cashier's checks, or writing checks to other entities, the statement adds.

"Amin worked hand-in-hand with co-conspirator Aldrin Fomukong to perpetrate the fraud in Maryland," it continues. "Amin also independently corresponded with the leaders of the fraud scheme overseas and recruited and managed his own co-conspirators, including co-defendant Yanick Eyong, to open bank accounts to receive victim funds and withdraw the victim funds from the fictitious bank accounts before the fraud was detected."

Amin and co-conspirators were attempting to steal a total of $10.9 million from 13 victims, the DOJ says.

The following individuals have pleaded guilty, and two of them -- Fomukong and Digifa -- await sentencing:

• Aldrin Fon Fomukong, a/k/a “Albanky,” a/k/a “A.L.,” age 24, of Greenbelt, Maryland;
• Carlson Cho, a/k/a “Uncle Tiga2,” age 23, of Braintree, Massachusetts;
• Izou Ere Digifa, a/k/a “Lzuo Digifa,” a/k/a “Mimi VA,” age 22, of Lynchburg, Virginia;
• Yanick Eyong, age 26, of Bowie, Maryland; and
• Ishmail Ganda, a/k/a “Banker TD,” age 31, of College Park, Maryland.

"Fomukong and Digifa remain detained pending sentencing," the statement reads. "Judge Grimm sentenced Eyong to 57 months in prison; sentenced Cho to 48 months in prison; and sentenced Ganda to 90 days in prison, to be served during his first 18 months of supervised release."