Acting United States Attorney Justin Whatcott announced that Olamide Shanu, 34, of Lagos, Nigeria, made his initial appearance yesterday after his extradition to the United States from the United Kingdom. Shanu faces prosecution in an indictment for his role in several cyber-enabled schemes including “sextortion” and romance scams. Shanu made his initial appearance yesterday before U.S. Magistrate Juge Debora K. Grasham.
Shanu is charged in an eight-count indictment with wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit interstate communications with intent to extort and cyberstalking, conspiracy to commit extortion, money laundering conspiracy, extortion, interstate communications with intent to commit extortion, and cyberstalking. Authorities in London arrested Shanu in the United Kingdom on November 7, 2023, based on the indictment filed in the District of Idaho. Shanu has remained incarcerated since the arrest.
According to the indictment, Shanu and his conspirators posed as females on social media and persuaded their victims, typically males, to send sexual images of themselves. The indictment alleges that once the victims sent the explicit images, the conspirators threatened to send the explicit images to the victims’ friends and families unless the victim paid money. The indictment alleges that the conspirators engaged in this extortion of numerous victims across the United States, including a college student in Idaho. The indictment alleges the conspirators also perpetrated, among other cyber-enabled schemes, a romance scam scheme. Proceeds from the schemes were allegedly laundered using peer-to-peer payment applications and several cryptocurrency wallet addresses before allegedly being transferred to the scheme’s perpetrators in Nigeria. According to the indictment, Shanu fraudulently obtained at least $2,000,000 from the fraud schemes.
If convicted of the charges, Shanu faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He also faces restitution for the losses incurred by the victims of the scheme.
Acting U.S. Attorney Whatcott thanked the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs (OIA) and the U.S. State Department for their help in facilitating the arrest and extradition of Shanu. Acting U.S. Attorney Whatcott also extends his appreciation and thanks to the National Extradition Unit of the United Kingdon’s National Crime Agency, who provided critical assistance with the arrest and extradition of Shanu.
The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and the Boise Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Brittney Campbell and Sean Mazorol and Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) Trial Attorney Vasantha Rao.
