Scammer who bilked school district out of $784k convicted
3 years after one of the biggest fraud cases in Idaho history, sentencing awaits for 'Nigerian prince'
JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — A 37-year-old Nigerian scammer living in Houston was finally convicted three years after bilking the Teton School District 401 out of nearly a million dollars.
Julius Joachim Ohumole was convicted by a Houston grand jury on various counts related to a BEC (business email compromise) scam he pulled on the Idaho school district during its 2018 construction of a new elementary school. According to Teton Valley News the announcement was made to the school board last week.
Ohumole was indicted in December 2019 on a $1.3 million fraud involving Regions Bank. He was charged with one count of conspiracy, four counts of bank fraud, and two counts of aggravated identity theft.
Ohumole opened a bank account in the name of Mars Construction (MARS) Dec. 5, 2018, at Regions Bank in Houston. At that time, he allegedly used false identification documents which identified him as someone else.
Later that month, Ohumole accompanied another individual to Regions who used false identification documents to appear as an actual accountholder with the bank. Ohumole requested that person be added as a co-signor to the MARS account which then allowed it to be linked to the real accountholder.
Ohumole then tricked TSD#401 business manager Carl Church into believing his entity was Headwaters Construction Company, a general contractor based in Victor, Idaho. Church made an electronic payment of $784,833.71 to the fraudulent bank account via his district email account.
When the cybercrime became public in January 2019, Church immediately resigned and the FBI took over investigation of the case. Church was never a suspect, but the school district did admit it needed to tighten its financial security protocol.
About half the money was eventually recovered. Insurance covered the remainder.
Ohumole’s sentencing is scheduled for February. Each count of conspiracy and bank fraud carries a possible sentence of up to 30 years in federal prison and the aggravated identify theft charge carries up to two years, upon conviction. Each conviction also carries a possible $1 million maximum fine.
