I was only a middle man, Nigerian Bitcoin criminal says after being apprehended

• According to court documents, some 4 Nigerians conspired to launder the proceeds of 216 bitcoin they bought from Aptlazarus.to a dark-web platform controlled by the notorious Korean hackers the LAZARUS GROUP. this criminals ran out of luck after they sent the stolen bitcoin to a digital wallet registered under their real government ID. Over the last two months, approximately 96 of those stolen bitcoin were transferred out of the wallet via a complicated money laundering process that ended with some of the stolen funds being sent to more complicated wallets linked to the other parties. The remainder of the stolen funds, comprising more than 120 bitcoin, remained in the wallet used to receive and store the illegal proceeds. After the execution of court-authorized search warrants of owners of the wallet accounts, special agents obtained access to files within an online account controlled by some of the suspects. Those files contained the private keys required to access the digital wallet that directly received the funds stolen from Bitfinex, and allowed special agents to lawfully seize and recover more than 120 bitcoin that had been stolen from Bitfinex. The recovered bitcoin was valued at over $4.8 million at the time of seizure
• “Today’s arrests, and one of the department’s financial seizure , show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals because most times they leave a trace by registering accounts with their real identities,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter what form it takes.”

One of the apprehended cyber criminal testified to be a middle man in the case. Others has been in hiding ever since, somewhere in Nigeria.

According to the FBI poster declaring Uzuh wanted, he and his co-conspirators sent spoofed emails to thousands of U.S. businesses, requesting fraudulent wire transfers.

Uzuh allegedly worked with money launderers, romance scammers and others involved in BEC schemes to launder the proceeds of other crimes through a complex network of witting and unwitting people in the U.S. and abroad.

Okpoh who was indicted three years later was accused of providing hundreds of bank accounts to Uzuh and other co-conspirators.

The accounts were used to receive fraudulent wire transfers running into $1million.

Okpoh was indicted 21 August with a warrant of arrest issued on 22 August.

Afolabi Ogunshakin, who was also declared wanted was similarly accused of providing bank accounts to Uzuh and gang, to receive the fraudulent wire transfer.

According to the FBI, Ogunshakin caught the bug of fraud, by staging his own , after being an apprentice to Uzuh and other.

Like Okpoh, he was indicted on 21 August and a warrant issued for his arrest on 22 August.

Abiola Ayorinde Kayode, also on the FBI list was accused of providing bank accounts to Uzuh. He was also alleged to have conducted BEC and romance scams of his own.

He was indicted same day with Ogunshakin and Okpoh.

Nnamdi Orson Benson, the 5th member of the gang was also accused of making available bank accounts to the gang. He also staged his own scams too.

Michael Olorunyomi was not just a member of the six-man gang, he targeted vulnerable elders and widows in his scams.

He defrauded his victims of more than $1million.

He also aided the Uzuh group in providing bank accounts of his victims to be used for fraudulent wire transfers from other victims.