A convicted fraudster who claimed to have found God and vowed to leave his past behind in pursuit of a successful career as a fashion designer is now facing extradition to the United States for a multimillion-pound scam.
Oludayo Adeagbo, 42, is accused of participating in an email fraud scheme that allegedly swindled a university, a college, and two county governments out of a total of £3.7 million. If found guilty of business email compromise fraud, he could face up to 82 years in prison. Adeagbo, a father of four from Chingford, east London, maintains his innocence, with the final decision on his extradition lying with Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Previously, Adeagbo was convicted of leading a million-pound car fraud operation after receiving a grant from the Prince’s Trust to support his business ideas, serving two years in prison.
The Southwark Crown Court heard that he had arrived in the UK at the age of four and was the leader of a gang dubbed the “iPod crew,” which used Apple device memory to forge driving licenses, bank statements, and payslips to trick showroom staff into handing over up to 70 luxury cars.
When sentenced in 2004, he carried two Bibles and claimed to be “trading crime for Christianity,” expressing a desire to study while incarcerated.
After his release, Adeagbo founded a fashion brand, Florian Clothing, in 2011, winning awards for handbags he claimed were sold at high-end stores like Bloomingdale’s in New York.
In one case brought by the Western District of North Carolina, he allegedly assisted in defrauding Appalachian State University of about $1.96 million. In December 2016, the university received an email impersonating a finance official from a construction company, which led to a transfer of nearly $2 million to a JP Morgan bank account controlled by Ho Shin Lee, a Los Angeles businessman connected to Adeagbo and Donald Echeazu, 39, from Chadwell Heath, east London. The Metropolitan Police arrested Adeagbo and Echeazu in April last year; both face charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and aggravated identity theft.
Lee received a reduced three-year sentence in February 2019 after accepting a plea deal and is expected to testify against Adeagbo and Echeazu if they are extradited.
District Judge John Zani noted that the US government’s evidence indicated that Adeagbo and Echeazu had created a fraudulent domain to deceive the university into sending funds to Lee’s account.
In a separate case by the Southern District of Texas, Adeagbo is also accused of defrauding two county governments and a community college in Houston of over $3.2 million using similar email scams.
Another Briton, Olabanji Eginbola, 42, from Chafford Hundred, Essex, faces extradition for allegedly helping to defraud Virginia Commonwealth University out of about $470,000 in a different case.
None of the three men provided evidence at their extradition hearing, and their lawyers argued against their extradition, citing concerns about potential discrimination due to their Nigerian heritage and requesting that they be tried in the UK. Judge Zani stated he found no reasons to block the extradition and referred the cases to the secretary of state for a decision.
Adeagbo is currently held at Wandsworth prison, while Echeazu and Eginbola are out on bail.
