An Istanbul court on Friday ordered the arrest of eight people including five Nigerians and three Turkish nationals in an international fraud case. Suspects were detained in a police operation on Oct.18 in Istanbul's Bağcılar district.
They are accused of defrauding a Denmark-based company with a "man-in-the-middle attack." The scam involved suspects hacking into the company's emails and creating fake invoices. They later diverted $1.4 million from the company's bank accounts to their own accounts, disguised as the accounts of the Danish company's partner in Turkey. The police raid followed a complaint by the unidentified Danish company.
The suspects were captured in a hotel room and in an upmarket residence. The Hürriyet newspaper identified the gang's leader as Emanuel Aneke, a Nigerian man who uses the nickname Otunba Cash. An Instagram account bearing that nickname shows a man who describes himself as the CEO of "Istanbul Entertainment." In photos he shared, Otunba Cash flaunts his prosperity, from shopping at upscale department stores to luxury cars. In the raids, police found jewelry worth thousands of dollars and expensive watches, along with $20,000 and 5,000 euros in cash.
