Abiodun Adejohn was part of a scheme selling on procured cartridges on the black market.
The FBI announced that Adejohn, who also went under the aliases James Williams, Olawale Adeyemi, Abiodun Ade John and Abiodun Ade-John, was sentenced to three years in jail for his part in the fraud scheme, which defrauded cartridge suppliers of nearly $1 million (€896,982) in toner cartridges in the USA through identity theft and hacking.
The Recycler reported in June 2014 on Adejohn’s guilty plea to allegations of “wire fraud conspiracy”, with the fraud scheme using “phishing” – a form of hacking utilising fraudulent emails and websites “that mimicked legitimate emails and web pages of US government agencies”. Employees of the agencies unwittingly visited the fake web pages, providing email account usernames and passwords, with their credentials stolen in order to access their emails.
Once Adejohn and his accomplices had the email details, they “placed fraudulent orders” for toner cartridges in the employees’ names at companies who were “authorised to do business with US government agencies”, with these companies directed to ship the orders to “individuals in New Jersey” who repackaged and shipped the cartridges overseas to locations where the fraudsters could take possession of them.
Those that were sent to Nigeria were sold by both Adejohn and his co-conspirators, who sold the cartridges “to another individual on the black market for profit”. Adejohn was arrested in Arizona in September 2013, and New Jersey US Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced his sentencing, adding that he would have to pay $630,806.48 (€565,822.05) in restitution. The case had involved the Office of Inspector General of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the Department of Defence (DoD) and the FBI.