DOVER, Del. - Two Delaware men who were serving in the U.S. Air Force at Dover Air Force Base have been sentenced to a combined nearly 16 years in federal prison for their roles in an international cyber fraud scheme targeting businesses and nonprofits across the country.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 25-year-old Chijioke Timothy Odimegwu and 26-year-old Harafat Mogaji used phishing campaigns and compromised business email accounts to steal financial information and redirect payments. According to a federal indictment, both men were members of the Air Force and stationed at Dover Air Force Base while the crimes were committed.
Prosecutors say the scheme operated for nearly two years from 2023 to 2025 and involved co-conspirators in the United States and abroad. The group allegedly stole employee usernames and passwords, accessed company email accounts, and monitored communications between businesses and their trusted partners. They then used spoofed email addresses to impersonate those businesses and redirect legitimate payments to accounts controlled by the conspiracy.
One of the largest thefts involved an Iowa City nonprofit working on a construction project. According to the indictment, filed in November of 2025 and acquired by WBOC, the conspirators compromised email accounts at an architecture firm working with the nonprofit and sent fraudulent wiring instructions for a pending payment. The nonprofit ultimately wired more than $1.68 million to an account controlled by a co-conspirator.
The Justice Department says Odimegwu and Mogaji also helped divert a more than $720,000 wire from an Ohio victim and attempted to redirect other business payments across the country.
Prosecutors say the pair also obtained stolen financial information, including bank account information and credit and debit card numbers. In one case, the indictment says Mogaji sent Odimegwu credit card information and images of a card belonging to an Iowa organization, which Odimegwu then allegedly used in an attempt to make unauthorized purchases.
On Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, Odimegwu was sentenced to 111 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $366,617.59 in restitution. Mogaji received 78 months and was ordered to pay $995,680.45 in restitution.
Both men were taken into custody following sentencing and will each serve three years of supervised release after completing their prison terms.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
