A 47-year-old UK-based Nigerian, Mr. Oduntan,with an Irish passport, is standing trial in the United States for alleged wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy.
He was arraigned before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, Louisville, over allegations of stealing credit card details from American citizens to purchase and resell Broadway tickets.
Investigators said Mr. Oduntan fraudulently obtained at least 61 tickets for Wicked from the Kentucky Performing Arts,KPA, platform using stolen credit card information.
The tickets were later resold to unsuspecting buyers on StubHub, a top U.S. live event ticket marketplace.
The scheme began to unravel when credit card companies detected the fraud and initiated chargebacks for affected customers, leading to losses of no less than $100,000 for KPA, as refunds were processed after the shows had ended.
KPA promptly alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation,FBI, submitting transaction details, names, emails, and IP addresses linked to the fraudulent purchases.
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Despite the suspect’s use of VPNs to mask his digital trail, FBI agents traced the proceeds from StubHub ticket sales to PayPal accounts and later into Mr. Oduntan’s Revolut and Allied Irish Bank accounts in Ireland.
Court filings dated August 7 stated that PayPal records showed deposits of nearly $350,000 into Mr. Oduntan’s accounts between January 2023 and July 2024.
FBI Special Agent Daniel W. Heath identified multiple StubHub and PayPal accounts connected to the suspect, with four emails tied to one PayPal account: fenandexadex@gmail.com, romanslady001@gmail.com, romanslady00@gmail.com, and samesonbar@gmail.com.
Further investigation revealed that the phone number used for fraudulent transactions matched the one Mr. Oduntan provided in his U.S. visa application.
The FBI secured an arrest warrant from Magistrate Judge Regina S. Edward, which was sealed until his arrival in the U.S. in late August. He was arrested immediately upon landing.
Mr. Oduntan, now held at the Grayson County Detention Centre, pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was indicted by a grand jury on September 3, with his trial set to begin on November 10.
Gazette Nigeria.
