Obinwanne Okeke, From Entrepreneur Poster Boy To Outcast In US Prison

“Invictus” Obinwanne Okeke was going to take his mother, a teacher and fourth wife to a polygamist, out of poverty. At 16 while applying for scholarships and admissions into the university, Okeke had already begun setting up websites for people and earning money to support his family.

His mother was doing so many things “just to get us by” and Okeke, youngest of his father’s 17 children, made himself “a promise to put a smile on her face.” Yet there was the irony: “My mother…had always said that she doesn’t want money in as much as she didn’t have much,” he told BBC News Africa in a 2018 interview. She wanted him to get an education instead, in her belief that it led to a better place.

Young Okeke, fatherless at 15 and raised in a village in Dunukofia in Nigeria’s Anambra State heeded the advice: He earned a bachelor’s degree (First Class) in International Relations from Monash University in South Africa and followed up with a master’s in Counter-Terrorism Studies from Monash University in Australia.

He had raised money for his master’s in part by partnering other youth and buying cars that were rented out for a taxi business. The fleet had 13 cars, Okeke had said.

Records show that Okeke was recognized with the Most Outstanding Student Award in International Studies as an undergraduate student at Monsah University in South Africa. It was not to be his only award in life.

Later at 28, he was named on Forbes Africa 30 under 30 for 2016. In May 2017, The African Brand Congress awarded his brainchild, the Invictus Group of Companies Limited Africa’s Most Innovative Investment Company of the Year 2017 Award. In October 2017, Okeke was nominated for Africa’s most prestigious award for businessmen, the AABLA Awards, in the category of Young African Business Leader (West Africa)—the same year he was a featured speaker at the Forbes Under 30 Summit EMEA 2017 in Israel.

The accolades came from his purported investments in construction, oil and gas, agriculture, private equity, and telecom. He ran his holdings under the Invictus Group, which operated in three African countries including Nigeria, South Africa, and Zambia.

In the BBC interview, Okeke said his mother was a partner in some of his businesses. His dream of making his mother smile had come true, at least until his arrest in the United States a year later by officers of the Federal Investigation Bureau (FBI) on wire fraud charges.

That arrest, in October 2019, sparked a national shock, followed by Okeke’s initial denial of wrongdoing. Many Nigerians inspired both by his rise and personality were disappointed to have believed a lie for long. During the legal gymnastics that followed in the US, Okeke finally pled guilty in June 2020.

According to court documents, 32-year-old Okeke and other conspirators engaged in a conspiracy from approximately 2015 to 2019 to conduct various Business Email Compromise (BEC) frauds. As part of the scheme, they targeted Unatrac Holding Limited, the export sales office for Caterpillar heavy industrial and farm equipment. In April 2018, a Unatrac executive fell prey to a phishing email that allowed conspirators to capture login credentials. The conspirators sent fraudulent wire transfer requests and attached fake invoices, totaling nearly $11 million.

His sentencing came today at the District Court for Eastern Virginia where a judge handed him a 10-year jail term for an offense that could attract up to 20 years in prison. The reduced term flowed from his guilty plea and a plea bargain deal that saw him forfeit part of the stolen funds. A day before, a pastor and relatives had written to the court pleading mercy. His lawyer John Iweanoge had also argued for leniency citing the forfeitures and other “collateral consequences.”

“The FBI will not allow cyber criminals free reign in the digital world to prey on U.S. companies,” said Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office. “This sentencing demonstrates the FBI