A Nigerian man living in the United Kingdom, Farouk Adekunle Adepoju, has been arrested at the request of U.S. authorities on charges of wire fraud and computer fraud, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced.
Adepoju was taken into custody by U.K. authorities on September 15, 2025, and is awaiting extradition to the United States to face a seven-count indictment in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
According to the unsealed indictment, Adepoju allegedly hacked into the computer of a Western Pennsylvania construction company contracted by a university between March and April 2023. Prosecutors say he altered email rules, created a spoofed email account, and deceived the university into transferring approximately $235,266.80 into a fraudulent bank account. The funds remain unrecovered.
“Adepoju is charged with using sophisticated cyber means to illegally access accounts belonging to a business in order to victimize one of our region’s universities,” Rivetti said in a press release. “Even from halfway across the world, however, Adepoju was not beyond the investigative reach of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek echoed the warning, stating: “Criminals who think they can reach across the globe into the United States to line their pockets at the expense of the American public need know one thing: the FBI and our partners are not going to let you get away with it.”
Adepoju faces six counts of wire fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of computer fraud, which carries up to five years.