Us Department Of Justice Official Release - 03358-519 Txt

GRAND JURY INDICTS NIGERIANS IN WIRE FRAUD SCHEME WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice announced today that a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, returned a nine-count indictment charging three Nigerian citizens with wire fraud. The indictment alleges that the defendants defrauded EER Systems Inc., an aerospace contractor based in Vienna, Virginia, and its chief executive officer, Dr. Jai N. Gupta, of $4.4 million in connection with a scheme in which he was offered a share of $28.5 million allegedly obtained by fraud from the government of Nigeria. Named as defendants were Johnny Okolie, Fred Kachi and Henry Achiekwelu, all Nigerian citizens. The Department announced it will begin extradition proceedings immediately. According to the indictment, EER and Gupta received and responded to a letter mailed from Nigeria in September 1992 by the defendants offering to deposit $28.5 million in funds obtained by over-invoicing the government of Nigeria through the use of false invoices provided by EER Systems. For the use of EER's bank account, the defendants offered to give Gupta and EER 15 percent of the funds on deposit, as well as a fee for managing the balance of the money. Following a number of requests, Gupta transferred almost $4.4 million -- to cover "taxes" and other fees -- to accounts designated by the defendants. Neither EER nor Gupta ever received any of the promised funds in return. The three defendants each face a maximum fine of $250,000 and five years in prison. The case was investigated by the fraud section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Customs Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.