Two people from Nigeria, Shodiya Babatunde (43) and Jamui Ahmed (31), have been accused by the United States for their part in a $13 million fraud. They tricked healthcare companies in Minnesota to get this money.
The charges were announced on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota. They said Babatunde and Ahmed, with other people, took millions of dollars that were supposed to go to Fairview Health and put it in their own accounts.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger explained that Babatunde and Ahmed fooled employees of several healthcare companies in Minnesota. They made these workers send money to fake accounts.
From October 2020 to 2024, the two created fake websites and email addresses pretending to be important people at Fairview Health.
“Babatunde and Ahmed made a false ‘spoofed’ internet site to look like it belonged to Fairview Health,” Luger said.
They used these fake accounts to send phishing emails. These emails tricked vendors into giving away important details like passwords and account numbers.
The statement continued, “The vendor companies didn’t know the new accounts were actually controlled by Babatunde, Ahmed, and their friends, not Fairview Health.
“In total, Babatunde and Ahmed fraudulently sent more than $13 million meant for Fairview Health from Minnesota healthcare companies to accounts they controlled.”
Currently, Babatunde and Ahmed have run away and are hiding in Nigeria, avoiding the law.